Health injury is not a hurdle for strong willing Mirabai Chanu; notched up a gold medal at the EGAT Cup in Thailand

Bangkok, February 7: World champion Indian weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu Thursday notched up a gold medal at the EGAT Cup in Thailand, making a strong comeback from the lower back injury that kept her out of action for more than half of 2018.

According to information received, Chanu won the 48kg category gold with an effort of 192 kg in the silver level Olympic qualifying event, the points from which will come in handy when the final rankings for Tokyo 2020 cut are done.

Chanu had missed the world championships last year, a gold level Olympic qualifier, owing to the injury which had also forced her out of the Asian Games in Jakarta.

Chanu last took part at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast where she won gold with an effort of 196kg.

Mirabai’s Awards and Medals-

Chanu qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics in the women's 48 kg category. However, she failed to finish the event as she failed to lift the weight in any of her three attempts in the clean & jerk section.

In 2017, she won the Gold medal in the Women's 48 kg category by lifting a competition record 194 kg in total (85 kg snatch and 109 kg clean & jerk) in the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships held at Anaheim, CA, United States.

Mirabai received India's highest civilian sports honour Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for 2018. In 2018, Chanu was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.