New Delhi,
The smile is back on Saikhom Mirabai Chanu’s face. She shot into the limelight after she became the first Indian in over two decades to win a gold at the weightlifting World Championships.

Karnam Malleswari was the last Indian to win the big prize at the Worlds, in Beijing in 1995.

Mirabai lifted a world record total of 192 kg (85 kg in snatch, 109kg in clean & jerk) to stun the fans as well as the International Weightlifting Federation officials in Anaheim, USA.

The triumph was a redemption for her as well as chief coach Vijay Sharma, who both were criticised in the media and social media for her disappointing performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Mirabai had failed to complete any of her three attempts in clean & jerk, and eventually finished with a Did Not Finish against her name.

The hurt and the disappointment were such that the soft-spoken Manipuri was ready to call time on her career. “It took me a lot of time to get over the disappointment in Rio. I did not want to train anymore, thought of leaving weightlifting for good,” the 23-year-old said.

“Coach sir (Vijay Sharma) was sad too. Comments in the media were disheartening. They said sir wasn’t a good coach and that he is not qualified to become chief coach,” she added.

Eventually, when she did decide to train, which was within weeks after the Rio hurt, Mirabai told herself that the only way to shut up all the critics was to win more medals. “So I started to train harder,” she said.

Mirabai hasn’t missed a training session since taking a week off after Rio. But the disappointment is still fresh in her mind.

“We were very sure that I will win a medal because during the trials I had lifted a total of 192 kilograms,” she recalled. “Had I repeated the same performance (in Rio), I would have ended up with a silver medal. But I couldn’t do it. Maybe it was that I got nervous because it was my first Olympics. Had I lifted one of the three in clean & jerk, I would have been assured of a medal.”

Now that she has won the big prize, Mirabai’s next big target is to win a medal at the 2018 Asian Games, and realising her big dream of becoming an Olympics medallist. “It was my dream to win at the Worlds and now that is done my new target is to do well at the Asian Games and at the 2020 Olympics. I will try to do my best,” she said.