Mirabai Chanu is under pressure to lift 90 kg in order to win the coveted Hangzhou Asian Games gold

When the weightlifting competition begins here on Saturday, Mirabai Chanu will be under pressure to complete the much anticipated 90 kg snatch lift in order to have a chance at winning the coveted Hangzhou Asian Games gold.

However, finding the podium in the continental competition, which includes lifters from weightlifting superpowers like China, North Korea, and Thailand, won’t be an easy assignment for the Manipuri.

Chanu had been the leader in the 49 kg competition for a while, but the Indian is now outside the 90 kg elite club, lagging behind her competitors.

With a personal best of 119 kg, Chanu is still in the top three in the clean and jerk category, but her overall weight has begun to suffer as a result of her consistently subpar snatch performance.

Up to seven lifters have crossed the 90-kilogram threshold, and four of them—the Thai team of Thanyathon Sukcharoen and Surodchana Khambao, the two-time world champion Jiang Huihua of China, and Ri Song Gum of North Korea—will be vying for the top spot in the continental competition.

The world record for snatch is 96 kg, whereas Chanu’s best performance is 88 kg.

“At the Asian Games, we want to surpass the 90kg threshold (in snatch). We haven’t tried to cross that threshold in a long,” India’s head coach Vijay Sharma told PTI.

The Asian Games are the only competition in which the Manipuri have not won a medal, thus the silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics has given them priority this year.

She had placed tenth in the 2014 competition but was unable to compete in the 2018 Olympics because of a back issue.

Bindyarani Devi is the other Indian lifter competing for a podium spot in the women’s 55kg division.

At the Asian Championships in May, the 24-year-old came in second to Chen Guan-Ling of Chinese Taipei, who is the gold medal favorite.