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Commonwealth gold medalists Mirabai Chanu, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, and Achinta Sheuli will not be taking part in the upcoming Asian Championship

Eight Indian weightlifters, including Olympic silver medalist Mirabai Chanu, will go to the United States on Tuesday for a three-and-a-half-week strength and conditioning training camp in St. Louis ( Reported by PTI)

Seven other Indian Weightlifters who won medals in CWG 2022 will join Mirabai Chanu.

Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Achinta Sheuli, Sanket Sargar, Bindyarani Devi, Gurdeep Singh, previous CWG champion R V Rahul, and Asian Championship gold medalist Jhilli Dalabehra will accompany Chanu to St. Louis.

The Asian Championship is set to take place from October 6 to October 16 in Manama, Bahrain.

While Sargar will go through rehabilitation after having surgery for the elbow injury he sustained during his competition at the CWG, the other lifters will also work with Dr. Aaron Horschig, a former weightlifter now a physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach.

“We will be in the USA for 23-24 days. It is the off-season so we will have a strength program there,” National weightlifting head coach Vijay Sharma said to PTI.

He added: “All these lifters have small niggles like Gurdeep has some issue in his wrist. Sanket will go through proper rehab. We want that everyone is perfectly fit for the World Championships.”

“The lifters who have returned from the CWG will not compete in the Asian Championships. We will be sending our B team. The focus is on the World Championship, a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics,” Sharma said. ( H/T Scroll )

Senior weightlifters will miss this year’s Asian Championships to focus on the World meet which is a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics set to take place in 2024.

India will be fielding its B team comprising of junior lifters.

“The lifters who have returned from the CWG will not be competing in the Asian Championships, instead we will be sending our B team,” Sharma said

The World Championship is set to take place from December 5th to 15th in Bogota, Columbia. It is the first qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics. ( As reported to Times of India )

The Indian Weightlifting contingent had an impressive run at the Commonwealth Games 2022 where they finished with a total haul of 10 medals.

Indian weightlifting head coach Sharma was not satisfied with the performance

He added ” It could have been better. Ajay Singh, who was a gold contender missed out. Sanket and Poonam also missed out on a gold medal as well.” he added ( H/T TOI )

Do you think this is the right move by the Indian Weightlifting contingent to focus on world meet instead of Asian Championships?

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