SPORTS | Manipur: Mirabai Chanu gives weightlifting it’s moment as she passes dope-tests
Imphal, December 19, 2017: Subjected to an astonishing 45 dope tests in the last four years, Mirabai Chanu is the success story of Indian weightlifting in a blemish-free 2017 in which she managed to stay clear of the dope scandals that have destroyed the sport's credibility in the past.
A dope-test is an official test to discover if a person taking part in a competition has been given any drugs to make their performance better or worse
The 23-year-old lifter from Manipur this year made sure that weightlifting did not go unnoticed as she claimed the country's first World Championship gold medal in two decades.
On November 30, Chanu won women's 48kg category gold at the World Championship in Anaheim, USA, becoming the first Indian in 22 years after Olympic bronze-medallist Karman Malleswari to attain the feat.
For once, a sport infamous for doping scandals earned its moment when a shy youngster was subjected to two dope tests in two days after returning from the world championship.
However, there was hardly any trace of hurt in Chanu.
Her national record bettering lift of 194kg didn't just give her fresh inspiration to aim higher but also lifted the profile of weightlifting.
The reigning Commonwealth champion endured a difficult journey that led her to her gold medal feat. It was about a year ago that she had contemplated on quitting the sport after drawing strong criticisms for not winning a medal at the Rio Olympics.
It took her quite a while to start from the scratch again. Her determination finally got her the desired results across the Atlantic.
"I have been tested so many times in the past two years but nothing has come out. Whenever they ask me to give a sample, I do it without hesitation because I have nothing to hide. I am only bothered about my training and looking forward to doing well at next year's Commonwealth and Asian Games," Chanu said.
Feature image courtesy: sports.yahoo.com, Kreed On
TNT News with inputs from agencies
