Kolkata: Olympic medal hopeful and former world champion Mirabai Chanu bettered her own national record by lifting a total of 203kg to win the 49kg gold in the National Weightlifting Championships here on Tuesday. The Manipuri, 25, representing Railways here, lifted 88kg in snatch in her second attempt and 115kg in clean and jerk for a total of 203kg. Mirabai's previous best of 201kg had come at the World Championship in Thailand in September last year, where she had finished fourth.

Chanu on the four

Tuesday's effort has put her in fourth place in world rankings behind Chinese Jiang Huihua (212kg) and Hou Zhihui (211kg) and Korean Ri Song Gum (209kg). Mirabai was targeting 207kg but lost her balance in the final attempts of both the snatch and clean and jerk. She started off by easily lifting 85kg in snatch, and raised the weight to 88kg for her second attempt, which was one kg more than the national record and her personal best of 87kg.