It must have felt slightly strange for Mirabai Chanu, bossing the weightlifting area with nobody to challenge her. Such a different scenario from the events of Tokyo Olympics last year, when the Chinese Hou Zhihu was lifting weights as if they were shopping bags, pushing our diminutive Manipur girl to come up with her own special in an epic 49-kg lift-off. Then it had got her a terrific silver, setting the stage for a memorable Indian Olympic medal windfall. It was July 24, 2021 then; it is July 30 now. Today. In Birmingham, you could say, she was on her own. Lifting a whopping 29 kg more than the second-placed Marie Hanitra Ranaivosoa of Mauritius. Mirabai lifted a total of 201 kg – 88 kg in snatch and 113 kg in clean and jerk – to create a new CWG record as well as her own personal best. There was a banner from the stands that made Hindi-following people present at the National Exhibition Centre in Solihull burst into laughter. “Mira tum ho India ka hira (Mira you are India’s diamond).” Truly she is a diamond, and for sure she is India’s lucky charm, the country’s talisman kick-starting things with a gold medal-winning performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
