Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu qualifies for Olympics

The Indian lifter is ranked second in the women's 49kg category with 4133,6172 points in her kitty.

New Delhi: India’s Mirabai Chanu, the 2017 world champion in weightlifting, has qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games in women’s 49 kg category, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced on Friday.

The 26-year-old from Manipur has qualified on the basis of her world ranking points. The Indian lifter is ranked second in the women’s 49kg category with 4133,6172 points in her kitty. China’s Hou Zhihui is top-ranked in 49kg with 4926,4422 points. As per rules of the IWF, top eight lifters in each of the 14 weight categories, including seven in the women’s group, are eligible to compete in Tokyo Olympic Games.

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Besides Mirabai and Hou, there are two more Asian lifters among top eight in women’s 49 kg. Indonesia’s Aisah Windy Cantika is ranked fifth and Vietnam’s Vuong Thi Huyen is seventh. Two European and two Pan American lifters fill the other four slots.

In men’s 67 kg category, India’s teenage weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga is ranked 12th and failed to get continental berth for the Tokyo Olympics as it was allotted to Korean weightlifter Han Myeong-mok. Top eight world-ranked athletes get automatic berths for Olympics. The IWF had set a May 31 deadline to achieve world ranking points.

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