Chanu places sixth in lifting

India's Thing Baijan Sanamacha Chanu, who before the event was tipped to be a medal favourite in the women's 53kg category weightlifting, performed well below expectations to end up sixth.

China's Xia Yang broke three world records, to claim the gold.

Chanu's lift of 85 in snatch, and 110 in clean and jerk (to total 195k overall) was on par with fourth-ranked Franca Gbodo of Nigeria and Swe Swe Win of Myanmar, but when the final placings were decided, Chanu slipped to sixth on the basis of superior bodyweight to the other two.

Chanu in fact was out of the medals contention even at the half-way stage, when she fluffed her best lift in the snatch to end up with an official best of 85k, well below China's Xia Yang, who broke the world record with a lift of 100k, as also Chinese Taipei's Feng Ying Li, who also broke the existing world record while lifting 97.5.

While the Chinese lifter, and other leading contenders, steadily improved with each lift, Chanu was erratic. Thus, she started with a clean lift of 80, progressed to 85 on her second lift, but in the third, fluffed 87.5. In contract, Yang started 95, moved to 97.5, and pushed for 100 on her third lift.

The clean and jerk segment was the same story again. Chanu cleared 105 on her first try, moved to 110 on the second, and then muffed 117.5 on the third try. By then, however, Yang had already lifted 122.5 in her very first try to outclass the field. The Chinese then pushed for 125k on her second try, and broke her second world record for the event. Yang cancelled her third lift, remaining content with the 125k second try, for a cumulative total of 225k -- her third world record.

Feng Ying Li took the silver with a combined total of 212.5, while the bronze was claimed by Winarni Binti Slamet with 202.5.

Mail your comments