Winning this gold medal was easy: Mirabai Chanu

India’s Mirabai Chanu with her gold medal on Saturday. Pic/PTI

In a battle that many dubbed as ‘Mirabai v Mirabai', India's star weightlifter entered the competition in the 49kg category only after all the others had finished their respective Snatch and Clean & Jerk lifts.

Mirabai's best Snatch of 88kg was 12kg better than the next best and in C&J her best lift of 113kg was 16kgs better than the next best. In terms of the total, the Olympic silver medallist's lift was 29kg better than second-placed, Marie Hanitra Roilya Ranaivosoa's 172 kg (76 kg plus 96kg). Mauritian Ranaivosoa knew she was competing for silver, just as she did in Gold Coast four years ago. "I had said earlier that I was competing with myself here. Everyone knows the Commonwealth Games is easy for me, but I never took it lightly. There is pressure of having things easy as well. I know what areas to improve on going forward.

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"My goal is the World Championships in December and Paris Olympics in 2024. My target at the World Championships is to match my [world] record in Clean and Jerk [119kg]," said Mirabai, who was thrilled with the crowd support she received throughout her event at the NEC Arena here. "Every athlete wants the crowd to back them and roar for them and I was pleasantly surprised to see such a huge Indian presence in Birmingham. They were roaring their lungs out for me, and it pepped me on. I'm so grateful that they were here," she added.