We want to preserve Mirabai Chanu for big and important tournaments, reveals IWF President Sahdev Yadav

Indian Star Weightlifters Mirabai Chanu and Jeremy Lalrinnunga won’t be participating due to injury.

Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF), under the aegis of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Government of Uttar Pradesh, will be hosting and organizing the 2023 Commonwealth Senior, Junior & Youth, and Asian Junior Weightlifting Championships at Gautam Buddha University Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh from July 12 to July 16 and July 28 to August 5 respectively.

Sahdev Yadav, the President of the Indian Weightlifting Federation, was pleased that India will be hosting back to back competitions giving good exposure to upcoming weightlifters. This the second time that India will be hosting the Commonwealth Senior, Junior and Youth Weightlifting Championships with the first one held in Pune in 2015.The IWF President addressed the media's queries in a press conference. His quotes are as follows.

Update on Mirabai Chanu and Jeremy

The president said on Mirabai Chanu's participation, "Tokyo Olympic silver medalist will not participate in the Commonwealth Championships as she is not fully fit and is currently in St Louis for rehabilitation. I am confident that Mirabai will give her best in the upcoming tournaments. We want to preserve Mirabai for the big and important tournaments as maintaining the weight of Mirabai is a tough task. Whenever she lowers her weight she feels tired and becomes weak."

The squad for Asian Games was released recently and only four Indians will be representing India at the Continental Games. The President opined, "I believe in quality over quantity. We have selected weightlifters who have performed well in the trails and those who have got good rank at the international tournaments".

On Jeremy's non-selection Sahdav asserts, "Jeremy is a great and talented weightlifter and the federation wanted to send him to St Louis but he refused to go. We tried convincing him but Jeremy was resistant to shift to the USA. Currently, he has been ruled out due to injury for atleast 1.5 months."

Thoughts on Bindyarani Devi

24-year-old Bindyarani Devi has been a consistent performer at the National and international meets. The Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medalist was recently added to the Indian team contingent for the Asian Games.

The president iterated, "Bindyarani Devi can win a medal at the upcoming Asian games in Hangzhou, China and for the Olympics, she has to change her weight category to 59kg from 55kg. I am confident that Bindyarani Devi can finish inside top 6 or 7 in the Olympics if she lives upto the expectations."

Further the Federation has built a world-class stadium in Patiala with the help of SAI. The inauguration of the stadium will be done soon with the equipments being brought in from Italy. This will ultimately improve athletes training and overall develop the infrastructure of the sport.