Asian Games the bigger goal for Mirabai and coach

Changing weight categories is never easy for an elite weightlifter. The real challenge is to reduce the weight while maintaining the same strength or even better it.

Mirabai Chanu has seamlessly and tactfully shifted between 48kg and 49kg and gone on to win a host of major medals in both weight categories.

The 31-year-old will be competing in 48kg in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Mirabai had competed in 49kg and won a gold in the 2022 CWG after clinching a silver in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She also bagged the CWG gold in 2018 and a silver in the 2025 World Championships in Forde, Norway, in 48kg.

“Yes, I have been in the weight category (49 kg) for many years. It is very tough to maintain my weight,” Mirabai told The Hindu here on Thursday.

In fact, her coach Vijay Sharma asked her to take it easy here and and not put too much pressure on herself in pursuit of a third consecutive CWG gold.

A smiling Mirabai said: “My focus is on the forthcoming Asian Games (49kg) in Japan. However, I will give my best here as there are good weightlifters from Nigeria and Canada.”

Vijay, who is also the chief national coach, said since Mirabai hadn’t won a medal at the Asian Games it was better to go all out in Japan. “We have a plan for her. We are focusing on the Asian Games. We don’t want her to push herself here too much lest she ends up with an injury. She is fit though,” he said.

Vijay further said the Indian team has a lot of promising youngsters and he expects the medals tally to go up to as high as 10. The weightlifting competition begins at the Scottish Event Campus here on Sunday.