CWG 2026: India will enter Glasgow with 11 weightlifters, hat-trick gold expected from Mirabai Chanu

Glasgow. Olympic silver medalist Mirabai Chanu will lead the Indian weightlifting contingent at the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Despite preparations affected by doping cases, the Indian team will enter the field with the intention of maintaining its dominance in this competition.

Number of players decreased due to doping

The Indian weightlifting contingent suffered a major blow just before the start of the competition, when the number of players was reduced from 16 to 11 due to doping violations. The latest case in this is that of Dilbag Singh of 96 kg category, who was dropped from the team this week. This has affected the preparations of the Indian team.

India’s glorious history and strong claim

Despite these obstacles, India is still considered a strong contender in the weightlifting event of the Commonwealth Games. One of the main reasons for this is that the giant countries of this sport like China and North Korea are not part of this competition. Indian weightlifters had the distinction of being the best performing country in the 1990, 2002, 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games. With a total of 133 medals (46 gold), India is the second most successful country in the history of this event after Australia. India topped the medal tally in Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 by winning a total of 10 medals including three gold and three silver in weightlifting. In such a situation, another impressive performance is expected from the team in Glasgow also.

The biggest expectation from Mirabai Chanu

All the 11 players of the Indian team have the potential to win medals, but the strongest hopes of gold medal are from some key players only. The biggest name among these is Mirabai Chanu, who has every possibility of successfully defending her Commonwealth title. Former world champion and Olympic silver medalist Chanu has a personal best total lift of 205 kg (snatch 89 kg and clean and jerk 116 kg), which is much better than all other competitors in the women’s 48 kg category.

Strategy keeping the Asian Games in mind

With less than two months left for the Asian Games to begin, Chanu has indicated that she will not take unnecessary risks in Glasgow. “Our main target is the Asian Games. So my performance here will be keeping that in mind. I will not go all out here and will not take any risks,” she said while talking to the media.

If Chanu makes successful attempts in both snatch and clean and jerk, it is almost certain that she will win her third Commonwealth gold and overall fourth Commonwealth medal. Despite the recent doping controversy, India also has high hopes of gold medal from Gyaneshwari Yadav (53 kg), Rishikant Singh (60 kg) and M. Raja (65 kg).

Indian weightlifting team for Glasgow Commonwealth Games

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