Ningbo (China), Oct 28 Mirabai Chanu will find herself in an unfamiliar territory as she starts her campaign in the women’s 53kg category at the IWF World Championships here on Thursday, while other Indian lifters will aim to improve upon their respective personal best.
The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist has moved up to 53kg as her preferred 48kg/49kg categories will not feature at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Incidentally, 53kg is the lightest women’s category at the Games.
Chanu has never competed in the 53kg category before. She participated in one tournament in the 55kg class in 2022.
Fresh from winning an elusive silver medal at the Asian Games — the only major medal missing from her glittering collection — the 32-year-old finds herself out of medal contention and in Group B with an entry total of 200kg, five kilograms below her career-best total.
“We have come here with the sole purpose of seeing what the competition level is in the 53kg category,” chief national coach Vijay Sharma told PTI.
“It is a new category and no doubt Mira will have to lift totals way higher than what she has been lifting to be in medal contention in 53kg.
“But this is only the start of the Olympic qualification process and we have time to plan how we go,” he added.
At the World Championships, Group A comprises lifters with the highest declared entry totals — the combined weight they intend to lift in the snatch and clean and jerk — while Groups B, C and D feature athletes with progressively lower entry totals.
Chanu won the 48kg world title in 2017 and claimed silver in 2025. As many as 15 lifters across Groups A and B have declared entry totals higher than the Indian’s, while four others have entered at 200kg.
Asian Championships and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Gyaneshwari Yadav, who will also compete in the women’s 53kg category, has an entry total of 195kg and has been placed in Group C.
“The aim for all our weightlifters is to improve their personal best mark,” Sharma said.
“The LA Olympic qualification system allows multiple lifters from each NOC to compete and earn ranking points,” he added.
Nirupama Devi and Usha will compete in the women’s 61kg category. Nirupama has declared an entry total of 211kg and been placed in Group C, while Usha’s 196kg entry total puts her in Group D.
India will field a five-member team after Arunachal Pradesh weightlifter Pesi Charu, who competes in the 65kg category, was withdrawn after being issued a stapled visa by the China Visa Application Service Centre.
The lone male lifter in the Indian contingent, two-time Commonwealth Games medallist Lovepreet Singh, will compete in the men’s 110kg Group B. He has logged an entry total of 395kg.
The World Championships is one of six events in the first period of the Olympic qualification system for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Under the qualification pathway laid out by the International Weightlifting Federation, athletes must register three total results — the combined weight lifted in the snatch and clean and jerk — during the first qualification period and two during the second, in the same weight category, to remain eligible for the Olympic Qualification Ranking (OQR).
The OQR will consider each athlete’s three best totals from the first period and two best totals from the second.
Squad:
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Women: Mirabai Chanu (53kg), Gyaneshwari Yadav (53kg), Nirupama Devi (61kg), Usha (61kg).
Men: Lovepreet Singh (110kg).
(PTI News)
