The character of Mirabai Chanu is unique. The ever-smiling “Iron Lady” of Indian weightlifting would just brush off the discomfort and downplay the difficulty at hand, even in the face of hardship.
Neeraj Chopra, an Olympic champion, Bajrang Punia, a four-time Worlds medalist, Vinesh Phogat, a three-time CWG champion, and Lakshya Sen, a finalist at the All England Open, are just a few athletes who may not compete at the National Games Gujarat in order to give their sore and worn-out bodies the rest they require.
That wasn’t the case with Mirabai, a Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, who took a chance on aggravating a left wrist injury she had sustained a week earlier during a training session in NIS Patiala in order to win her first-ever National Games gold on Friday at the Mahatma Mandir Exhibition Centre in the women’s 49kg division.
