Ahmedabad: Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai Chanu will return to competitive action on Monday after a year-long hiatus, leading the home challenge at the Commonwealth Championships where Indian weightlifters are expected to bag a rich medal haul.
Chanu, who has battled injuries in recent years, was last seen at the Paris Games in last August, where she missed the podium by a kilogram.
With the new Olympic weight categories in force for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, the 31-year-old has decided to move down from the 49kg division to 48kg, a weight class in which she won her world championship title and two Commonwealth Games medals, but hasn’t competed in it since 2018.
Managing the weight will be a challenge, and Chanu herself has admitted it. But the tenacious Manipuri, who has collected almost every accolade the sport has to offer, has embraced it.
Working closely with chief national coach Vijay Sharma, she has also been fine-tuning her technique in pursuit of the elusive 90kg snatch.
However, as she works towards peaking in October’s World Championships, Chanu will not be going full tilt at the Commonwealth Championships.