Tokyo Olympics 2020: Mirabai Chanu wins historic silver, opens India’s medal tally

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu bagged a silver medal in the women’s 49-kg category at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 on July 24, 2021.

In four successful attempts, 26-year-old Chanu lifted a total of 202-kg, 115-kg in clean and jerk and 87-kg in snatch. With this win, Chanu has now become the second Indian weightlifter to win an Olympic medal. Karnam Malleswari had won the bronze medal in the 69-kg category at the 2000 Sydney Games when the weightlifting sport was first opened to women.

#OlympicGames | Mirabai Chanu wins silver in Weightlifting Women's 49kg category, India open tally in Tokyo Olympics. pic.twitter.com/0cBsnkaKU4

— ANI (@ANI) July 24, 2021

Taking it to Twitter, PM Modi congratulated Mirabai Chanu on her winning the Silver medal in weightlifting. “Couldn't have asked for a happier start to #TokyoOlympics! India is elated by her stupendous performance. Her success motivates every Indian,” said PM Modi.

Could not have asked for a happier start to @Tokyo2020! India is elated by @mirabai_chanu’s stupendous performance. Congratulations to her for winning the Silver medal in weightlifting. Her success motivates every Indian. #Cheer4India #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/B6uJtDlaJo

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 24, 2021

China’s Zhihui Hou won the gold medal after creating a new Olympic record of lifting a total of 210-kg and Indonesia’s Windy Cantika Aisah bagged the bronze with a total of 194-kg.

India at Tokyo 2020 Olympics: July 24 Highlights

•Weightlifting: Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu bagged a silver medal in the women’s 49-kg category. Chanu lifted a total of 202-kg, 115-kg in clean and jerk and 87-kg in snatch.

•Shooting (Men’s 10-m Air Pistol): Saurabh Chaudhary scored 586 in the qualification round. He couldn’t bag a medal, finished 7^th in the final with a score of 137.4.

•Shooting (Women’s 10-m Air Rifle): Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela finished 16^th and 36^th in the women’s 10-m Air Rifle qualification round.

•Table Tennis: Manika Batra won the first round against Great Britain’s Tin-Tin Ho in the women’s singles. However, in the mixed doubles round of 16, Batra and her partner A Sharath Kamal lost to the Chinese Taipei pair of Yun Ju Lin and Ching I Cheng.

•Tennis: Sumit Nagal became the first Indian in 25 years and the third Indian to win a men’s singles at the Olympics Games. Nagal won against 2018 Asian Games champion Denis Istomin.

•Archery: Deepika Kumar and Pravin Jadhav lost to South Korea’s Kim Je Deok and An San.

•Badminton: B Sai Praneeth lost to Israel’s Misha Zilberman in the men’s singles Group Stage. In the men’s doubles, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won against the Chinese Taipei's pair Chi-Lin Wang and Yang Lee.

•Hockey: In men’s hockey, India beat New Zealand (3-2) in the Pool A match.

•Double Sculls: In the lightweight men’s double sculls, Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh have qualified for the repechage round.

•Judo: Sushila Devi lost to Hungarian Eva Csernoviczki. Devi was the only Indian judo athlete at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.