Picture Credit: Twitter
Mirabai Chanu clinched the first gold medal for India at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and her home state, Manipur was lit up as residents of Nongpok Kakching in Imphal East district were celebrating this incredible feat. Everyone in Chanu’s native place had their TV sets tuned to the Commonwealth Games on Saturday night and burst into celebration as Gold was confirmed.
Mirabai’s mother Tombi Devi revealed how she could not sleep the night before her daughter’s event and was only praying for her victory. "I am so proud of her. We stayed up late last night to see her event. Now, her sisters, relatives and the neighbours are celebrating with the tricolour, and some indulging in the traditional Thabal Chongba dance," she said.
As her mother said, the 27-year-old shared the video of the residents of Nongpok Kakching celebrating their local hero’s victory. The clip was captioned, “My mom and other relatives celebrating victory at my home.”
Chanu’s Gold at the 2022 CWG marks her second consecutive Gold at the event as lifted a combined total weight of 201kg. She also created the Commonwealth Record (CR) in snatch (88kg) and the Games Record (GR) in the clean and jerk (113kg).
Reacting to her performance, Chanu said, “I knew the Commonwealth Games was a relatively easy competition for me. Even my coach maintained the same. I never took it easy, though. My fight was against myself. I have a lot of goals in mind. I wanted to give my best performance and it’s good that the records also came along.”