It was a heartbreak for Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Saikhom Mirabai Chanu in the Paris Games as she finished fourth in the women’s 49 kg weightlifting final here on Wednesday. After the final, Manipuri lifter revealed that she felt weakness on stage as it was the third day of her menstruation.
Mirabai finished with a score of 199 kg after the conclusion of the two phases of the competition, 3kgs kg less than her total at the Tokyo Olympics (202 kg) for a silver medal. Her personal best is 205 kg which she lifted in the 2020 Asian Championship.
"I am happy with the performance... I tried my best to give my 100 to give India a medal but. I managed this despite having very little time for recovery after my injury. I tried my best to get a medal for India but it was not in destiny. It was the third day of my period and in Tokyo it was my second day so that also affects your body a bit," Mirabai told reporters.
Mirabai began the snatch round with an 85kg lift on her first attempt. However, her second attempt at 88kg proved to be unsuccessful. Mirabai had initially marked 86kg on her second attempt before making the change to 88kg a few minutes later.
She matched her personal best of 88kg, a national record, on the final attempt in the snatch round. However, her effort was matched by Thai lifter Surodchana Khambao with both of them being ranked joint-third by the end of the snatch round.
"Everything was going well for me in the warm up. I gave my best in snatch (88kg). Clean and jerk was also going very well. I fumbled a bit in my first jerk... While walking on the stage, I was feeling a little weak because of the third day (of my period). It was going well; whatever the coach said, I did. It is just destiny that a medal slipped out of my hand," she added.
In clean and jerk, Chanu failed to lift 111 kg after marking a weight higher than the rest of the field. However, she went for the same lift immediately after and aced it on the second time and climbed to second place along with Hou Zhihui.
However, Surodchana lifted 112kg on her second attempt to record 200kg overall and push Mirabai out of the podium places. The 29-year-old Mirabai’s failed first attempt came back to haunt her as she went for 114kg on her final lift and couldn't clear it and stayed at 199 overall.
