Mirabai Chanu continued to dominate Indian weightlifting in 2022 by winning her second medal at the World Championships, while other athletes also shone at the Commonwealth Games. Mirabai, who hails from Manipur, won India its first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games by finishing first in 49kg. Here was his third medal at the Commonwealth Games and second gold medal in a row. She ended the year on a high by winning a silver medal at the World Championships. Earlier, he had won the gold medal in this competition in 2017.
He lifted a total of 200 kg. Mirabai lifted 87 kg in snatch and 113 kg in clean and jerk. He also won silver medal in clean and jerk category. However, she could not lift 90 kg in snatch this year as well, for which she has been trying since 2020. Indian weightlifters shone and created some records at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July-August this year. Jeremy Lalrinnunga lifted 300 kg (140 kg and 160 kg) to set a new Commonwealth Games record in snatch and total weight.
Achinta Sheuli also set a new Games record in snatch and total weight with an effort of 313 kg (143 kg and 170 kg). Indian weightlifters won a total of 10 medals at the Commonwealth Games, including three gold, as many silver and four bronze medals. While Mirabai (49kg), Jeremy (73kg) and Achinta (77kg) won gold medals, Sanket Sagar (55kg), Vikas Thakur (96kg), S Bindrani (55kg) settled for silver while P Gururaja (61kg), Lovepreet Singh (109kg), Gurdeep Singh (+109kg) and Harjinder Kaur (71kg) won bronze medals.
India had topped the medal tally in the weightlifting event of the Commonwealth Games but barring Mirabai, no other athlete could continue the streak. Most of them did not participate in the Asian and World Championships. The year 2022 will see India get its first junior world champion in the sport in the form of Harshada Garuda. The 19-year-old did what even Mirabai could not do during her junior career. He won the gold medal in the 45 kg weight category.
Harshada then continued her impressive run by winning a bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships. Weightlifting, which has been battling serious issues like doping and corruption for some time, has not been included in the Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles in 2028. But now the International Weightlifting Federation has taken some steps, which has increased the possibility of including this sport in Los Angeles Games.
