Mirabai’s silver reaffirms her class at world level
The 31-year-old struggled with the snatch but her clean-and-jerk prowess gets her on the podium the World Championships
Mumbai: That familiar Mirabai Chanu smile was back. One that, in the tiny Norwegian town of Forde, passed through three stages in a matter of seconds.
The first was when the 48kg competitor managed to successfully lift a 115kg bar from her shoulders to well above it. Out came a tiny affirmative in-the-moment beam, even as she balanced herself and the body shivered from, literally, the weight of a World Championships medal-winning lift.
Then, as she flung the bar on the floor, that little smile turned into a glee-filled grin, even as she folded both her hands, bowed and lifted her arms.
And then, when she turned back to join her support staff looking on from the backstage, that smile, still glued to her face, blended into a sigh of relief as she looked skyward and hugged her coach Vijay Sharma.
It had been a while since that Mirabai smile was on show after a rewarding lift – at least on the world stage. It sparkled on the first day of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with a silver medal that stamped her class.
Four years later in a different weight category, it resurfaced on the first day of the 2025 World Championships with a silver medal that reaffirmed her class.
With that successful clean and jerk lift of 115kg to go with her earlier best effort of 84kg in snatch, Mirabai, now 31, grabbed her third World Championships medal with a total of 199kg. This silver came in the 48kg weight category, in which she was crowned the world champion back in 2017 and which is a kilo down from her Olympics and previous Worlds silver of 2022.
Between those two and this silver, India’s best in the business went through a lean phase of injury frustrations and so-near-yet-so-far finishes in major events.
“I’m happy to finish on the podium,” said Mirabai. “It gives me great confidence for the year ahead, especially after my previous performance at the Commonwealth Championships.”
That was in August this year, when she won gold in a tournament where the Indian, even far below her best, was head and shoulders above the rest. That was also her first competitive test since the Paris Olympics in August last year, after which she went away to address her recurring hip issue and buckle down to shape up for her new weight category (49kg was axed by the international federation).
In Ahmedabad at the Commonwealth Championships, Mirabai lifted 84kg in snatch and 109kg in clean and jerk. In Forde, while 84kg remained her best in the more technical snatch, her clean and jerk cranked up to 115kg.
Clean and jerk back to doing heavy lifting
Mirabai and her coach Sharma have for a while now worked towards fine-tuning her technique to get her to lift 90kg in snatch. Yet it was clean and jerk, Mirabai’s more productive fruit, that would prove less rewarding in her two fourth-place 49kg finishes in two major events in the last two years.
At the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, Mirabai lifted 83kg in snatch but only 108kg in clean and jerk. She twice failed in attempting 117kg and settled for the 191kg total and a medal-less outing.
At the 2024 Paris Games, Mirabai went better in snatch (88kg) but was under par in clean and jerk (111kg). A failed 114kg attempt meant the defending silver medallist could only come fourth with the 199kg total.
At the World Championships, in the absence of China’s two-time Olympic champion Hou Zhihui, the stronger suit was back to doing the heavy lifting for Mirabai.
The Indian failed in two 87kg snatch attempts after the 84kg lift, but bettered all her three clean and jerks (109kg to 112kg to 115kg). It ensured that she would sign off with a total of 199kg and finish above Thai Thanyathon Sukcharoen’s 198kg (88kg+110kg), even if North Korean Ri Song-gum’s 213kg (91kg+122kg) was a bridge too far.
“This is just the start of a very important phase in her career,” said Sharma. “The focus now is on fine-tuning her technique, building strength and ensuring she peaks at the right time.”
Next year’s Commonwealth Games, where she is a three-time medallist, and Asian Games, where she is yet to medal, will be key pit stops in that phase ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
For now, after a couple of fourth-place finishes, the familiar sight of Mirabai up on the podium of a significant event is back. And so is that smile.
