Mirabai focused on controlling her diet and weight

For 31-year-old Mirabai Chanu, it’s crucial to balance between cutting an additional kg and not losing muscle mass while preparing for important assignments such as the World weightlifting championships next month and the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games next year.

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai, who competed in the Commonwealth weightlifting championships in Ahmedabad after a year of participating in the Paris Olympics, was satisfied on her return to 48kg.

“In 48kg, (here) I had to control my weight and see how much I improved. It was a challenge. I really enjoyed the performance. The World championships is important for me,” Mirabai said after winning gold with a total of 193kg.

“I’ve to control my diet and weight. I’ve to focus on small muscle exercises. I can lose my muscles because of my weight. It’s a big deal to maintain that,” said Mirabai, while not ruling out that age could be a factor in this.

Her coach Vijay Sharma threw more light. “She had been competing in 49kg since 2018. For that, her body weight used to be around 51kg. Now, she has to reduce one kg for training and then another two kg for competition. There was a bit of fear (of not attaining ideal weight), there is an age factor. First, we checked that in a trial. There was some problem in reducing the weight. Here, it happened easily,” said Sharma.

Keep it flat

From keeping her body weight less than 48kg now, Mirabai will work towards achieving flat 48kg in competitions to maximise the advantage. “We, including the dietician, plan to reduce carbs little by little so that at the competition, without stopping food, she can weigh-in successfully.”

Sharma said for Mirabai the target in the World championships would be 200kg. “We have four weeks to close a 7kg gap,” he said.