World championship gold medalist Mirabai Chanu will lead India in the Asian Weightlifting Championship starting April 18 in Ningbo of China. The Asian Championship is a qualifying contest for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Indian team sent the junior team to the previous qualifiers World Championship in November. At that time senior repatriation was on rehabilitation. The team that goes to China includes four women and eight men.
The China-bound squad, including Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympics gold medalists Sathish Sivalingam and Jeremy Lalrinnunga respectively.
CWG gold medalist RV Rahul has been kept in reserve and a call will be taken on his participation in the next five days.
Two-time Commonwealth Games gold-medalist Sanjita Chanu, whose provisional suspension imposed on her for failing a dope test in 2017 was lifted by the International Weightlifting Federation in January, will not be competing in the tournament.
"Sanjita did not join the camp, she is still in Manipur." national coach Vijay Sharma said. "She has missed out on a lot of training because of her case, so she has requested to join the camp later."
India's brightest medal prospect, Mirabai had made a strong comeback from a lower back injury that had kept her out of action for nearly nine months. The 24-year-old Manipuri had lifted 82 kg in snatch and 110 kg in clean and jerk to clinch the gold medal at the EGAT Cup in February in her new weight category of 49kg
Commonwealth Games gold medalist RV Rahul has been named as a reserve player, whose team will be judged in the next five days. Sanjeeeta Chanu, who won twice in the Commonwealth Games gold medal, has not got a place in the team.
Team: Men: Satish Shivalingam (81kg), Vikas Thakur (96kg), Jeremy Lalrinnunga (67kg), Gurdeep Singh (more than 101kg), M Raja (61kg), Pradeep Singh (102kg), Achinta Sheuli (73 kg), Ajay Singh (81 kg).
Reserve: RV Rahul.
Women: Mirabai Chanu (49 kg), Jhilli Dalabehera (55 kg), Swati (59kg), Rakhi Halder (64kg).
