Mirabai Chanu won silver in the women’s 49kg event at the Asian Games in Nagoya, ending India’s 28-year wait for a weightlifting medal at the Games in 2026

New Delhi/Japan: Mirabai Chanu won silver in the women’s 49kg weightlifting event at the Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya on Wednesday, September 23. The medal gave India its first Asian Games weightlifting medal since 1998 and finally added the missing Asian Games medal to Chanu’s collection. She finished with a total of 198kg after lifting 87kg in the snatch and 111kg in the clean and jerk.

Mirabai Chanu completes her medal collection

Chanu arrived in Nagoya with an impressive list of international achievements, but one major medal had always escaped her.

She had already won Olympic silver, a World Championship gold, Commonwealth Games gold medals and medals at the Asian and Commonwealth Championships. The Asian Games remained the one major international stage where she had not stood on the podium.

That changed in Nagoya.

Chanu finished with 198kg to take silver behind North Korea’s Ri Song Gum. Her medal also made her only the second Indian weightlifter, after Karnam Malleswari, to win medals across the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, Asian Championships and Commonwealth Championships.

Chanu had come close before. She finished ninth at the 2014 Asian Games and missed the 2018 edition because of injury. At the 2022 Hangzhou Games, she finished fourth after struggling with a hip injury during the competition.

This time, she stayed in the fight and delivered when it mattered most.

How the final unfolded, lift by lift

The women’s 49kg final began at 1:30 PM local time at the Nagoya City Trade and Industry Center, with the competition starting at 10:00 AM IST.

Chanu entered the snatch section with three attempts and cleared all three.

She opened with 83kg, followed it with a successful 85kg, and then raised the bar to 87kg. That final snatch put 87kg on her scoreboard and left her third after the first half of the competition.

For casual viewers, the snatch is the first of the two weightlifting disciplines. The athlete lifts the bar from the floor to overhead in one continuous movement.

The clean and jerk works differently. The athlete first brings the bar to the shoulders in the clean and then drives it overhead in the jerk.

Chanu opened the second half with 107kg and successfully completed the lift. She then called for 111kg and cleared it on her second attempt.

That gave her a combined total of 198kg — 87kg in the snatch and 111kg in the clean and jerk.

The total moved Chanu into the silver-medal position and gave her the first Asian Games podium finish of her career.

A dominant gold for North Korea’s Ri Song Gum

Ri Song Gum produced the standout performance of the final.

The North Korean lifter won gold with a massive 215kg total, combining a 94kg snatch with a 121kg clean and jerk.

Her 94kg snatch also set a new world record.

Ri entered the competition as a two-time world champion and reigning Asian Games champion. The victory gave her a hat-trick of Asian Games titles in the event.

Chanu therefore had to settle for silver despite producing a strong 198kg total. Indonesia’s Luluk Diana Tri Wijayana completed the podium with 191kg.

Ending India’s long wait for an Asian Games weightlifting medal

Chanu’s silver also carried a much bigger significance for Indian weightlifting.

India had waited 28 years for another Asian Games medal in the sport. The country’s previous Asian Games weightlifting medal came through Karnam Malleswari in Bangkok in 1998.

That long gap ended when Chanu completed her 198kg total in Nagoya.

The achievement also adds another chapter to the history of Indian women’s weightlifting. Malleswari had opened the door on the Asian Games stage in 1998, and Chanu has now returned India to the podium nearly three decades later.

A career defined by resilience

Chanu’s career has repeatedly involved comebacks.

Born on August 8, 1994, in Manipur, she became one of India’s biggest weightlifting stars after winning the 2017 World Championship title. She followed that with Commonwealth Games gold at Gold Coast in 2018 and later produced the defining performance of her career at the Tokyo Olympics.

At Tokyo 2020, held in 2021, Chanu won silver in the women’s 49kg category with a 202kg total. She also became the first Indian athlete to win a medal at those Games.

Injuries later disrupted her progress. She finished fourth at the Paris Olympics in 2024 and then spent a year away from competitive action.

Her return came at the 2025 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Ahmedabad. Competing in the 48kg category, she won gold with 193kg, including 84kg in the snatch and 109kg in the clean and jerk. The performance also set Commonwealth Championship records in all three categories.

Where this medal fits among her other achievements

The Asian Games silver now sits alongside some of the biggest medals in Chanu’s career.

She won World Championship gold in 2017, multiple Commonwealth Games titles and an Asian Championships bronze in 2020. Her Commonwealth Games gold medals include Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022, while she also returned to the top at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow & silver remains another landmark achievement, while her Asian Games medal completes the major-event collection that had remained unfinished.

Her 2025 Commonwealth Championships victory also showed that she could return to the international stage after the disappointment of Paris.

Chanu moved back into the 49kg category for the Asian Games after competing in the 48kg category at the Commonwealth level. The distinction matters because 49kg is not an Olympic weight category, making the Asian Games competition a different challenge from her recent Commonwealth campaign.

India’s strong day at the Aichi-Nagoya Games

Chanu’s silver came during a productive day for India at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.

India won bronze in both the women’s and men’s skeet team events. Raiza Dhillon, Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Maheshwari Chauhan combined for 331 points to finish third in the women’s event.

Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Bhavtegh Singh Gill also secured bronze in the men’s skeet team event. Their 346-point total tied them with Kazakhstan, but India won the shoot-off to take the medal.

India also secured a medal in soft tennis on the same day after Jay Meena reached the men’s singles semi-finals, guaranteeing the country its first Asian Games medal in the sport.

By the time Chanu finished her competition, India had added another significant medal to its campaign — one that also carried a 28-year piece of history with it.

Chanu finally has her Asian Games medal.

And Indian weightlifting is back on the Asian Games podium.