What can India expect from its lifters at the 2019 World Weightlifting Championship?

[Jay]

IWF World Championships gets underway today from September 18 to 27th in the Thai city of Pattaya.

Mirabai Chanu will spearhead a 7-member Indian team at the Weightlifting World Championships which is a gold-level qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

This event is not the only deciding qualifier for Tokyo Games for athletes but a good performance at the gold level Olympic qualifying event will bolster their chances of making it to the Games next year.

The qualification process for Tokyo 2020 is based on the performances of the weightlifters in six events over a period of 18 months out of which the four best results will be considered.

A lifter has to compete in a minimum of two qualifying tournaments in three separate qualifying cycles - November 2018 to April 2019, May 2019 to October 2019 and and November 2019 to April 2020, to qualify for the Olympics.

Squad:

Women: Mirabai Chanu (49 kg), Jhilli Dalabehera (45 kg), Sneha Soren (55kg), Rakhi Halder (64kg).

Men: Jeremy Lalrinnunga (67kg), Achinta Sheuli (73 kg), Ajay Singh (81 kg)

Mirabai Chanu, the ace Indian weightlifter, who had won the gold in the 48kg category at the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships, remains India’s brightest medal prospect. Mirabai will be competing alongside 2018’s silver medalist China’s Hou Zhihui, who is also the current world record holder in the 49kg category, and bronze medal winner Jiang Huihua. Thai weightlifter Chayuttra Pramongkhol who had won gold is currently embroiled in a dope scandal.

Among the male lifters, all eyes will be on Youth Olympic Olympic Games gold medallist teenager Jeremy Lalrinnunga. Other Indians in fray, include Commonwealth Championship gold medallist Ajay Singh (81kg) and national champion Achinta Sheuli (73kg) and 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championship silver medallist Jhilli Dalabehera in the women’s 45kg category in Ningbo, China.

Who do you think will leave a lasting mark at the World Championship in the buildup to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?

[Tintin]

At the 2019 edition of the World Weightlifting Championship, India will root for Mirabai Chanu, the gold-medal winner at 2017 edition in 48kg. A promising show could be expected from the 2018 Youth Olympic gold-medallist, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, who will also mark his debut at the World Championship, at a much tender age of 16, in the 67-kg weight category.

We can only have a flickering hope from the Indian men weightlifters, who haven’t had an impressive history at senior stages. Achinta Sheuli and Ajay Singh will be carrying India’s hopes in the 73-kg and 81-kg categories respectively.

[Yash]

Both Mirabai Chanu and Jeremy Lalrinnunga will be India’s biggest hopes among the 9 member squad going to Thailand for the WWC. While Mirabai Chanu is a recognized name in Indian weightlifting, the 16 year old Aizwal Boy, Jeremy Lalrinnunga would look to create history.

He competes in the 67kg men’s category and has started the year by winning the silver medal in the EGAT Cup, lifting 131kg in snatch and 157kg in clean and jerk. At the Asian Championships, he smashed the Youth World and Asian records with an effort of 297kg (134kg+163kg). He will have to add more weights in this competition as he has set an entry weight of 305kg to be placed in the B Category. There’s plenty of hope from this talented teen who has already claimed several record to his name.

[Shashank]

Mira bai chanu and Jhilli Dalabehera, they both have potential to win the medal in tokoyo.

[Anubhav1]

Karnam malleshwari won the bronze medal at Sydney Olympics back in 2000. It was a big deal for us as weightlifting is a popular sport in India. Hopes were high and expectations raised but since that day, I have always seen disappointing performances from our lifters. Somehow, things not have been very pleasant. Every time the raised expectations are brought down. Leave aside Olympics and world championship, medal expectations from even Asian games and CWG are also slim. Of course, there have been a few bright spots but they have been just like false hope.
However, I had to keep one hope I would just hope for some kind of silver lining from the tournament. One medal maybe.

[Saket]

Mirabai Chanu, Jhilli Dalabehera, Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Ajay Singh are strong contenders for India. All the best for the 2019 World Championship!

Mirabai’s gold winning performance at 2017 Weightlifting World Championship , Anaheim, USA.

[Yogesh]

Mirabai Chanu produced her best so far with total 200+ KG lift, but fell short by 3 KG to finish fourth.

In not so good news, Youth Olympics gold medallist Jeremy Lalrinnunga lifted 296kg (136kg+163kg) in the men’s 67kg group B event and stood 10th in Group B.

In another disappointing news, 18-year-old national champion, Achinta Sheuli, tallied a total lift of 301 kg (135+166) and finished 25th.