Premier Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu finished a close fourth in the Women’s Weightlifting 49kg event at the Paris 2024 on Wednesday. The Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist lifted a total of 199kg (88kg snatch + 111kg clean & jerk) to finish one point adrift of eventual bronze medallist Surodchana Khambao of Thailand.

People’s Republic of China’s Zhihui Hou clinched a second consecutive gold medal with a total score of 206 after setting an Olympic Record of 117kg in clean & jerk in her final attempt and lifting 89kg in the snatch while Romanian weightlifter Mihaela Cambei lifted a total of 205 after her best effort of 93kg in snatch and 112kg in clean & jerk to bag the silver.

Chanu began her campaign at Paris 2024 in snatch with a lift of 85kg but could not hold onto the second lift of 88. The 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, however, matched her personal best of 88kg in snatch in the third attempt. She was placed at the joint-third spot along with the Thai weightlifter after the snatch round.

The Manipur native started the clean & jerk round with a miss but completed her second attempt of 111kg with her elbows stretched out wide. Her third attempt of 114kg to remain in contention for a podium finish proved to be tough for her as she failed to execute it.

Although Chanu matched her personal best in the snatch, she did not attempt to better or match her best effort of 119kg in the clean & jerk, that she set at the 2021 Asian Championships.