With eye on Paris Olympics, seniors to miss Asian Weightlifting Championships; to take part in Worlds after training camp in USA

With an eye on the Paris Olympics, India's senior weightlifters will give the Asian Championships a miss, turning their focus to the World Championships, which is a qualifying event for the Olympics.

A national weightlifing coach confirmed the development to Sportskeeda on Monday. He added that the senior weightlifters, who had won laurels at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022, will concentrate on the World Championships after a strength and conditioning camp in the USA.

The World Weightlifting Championships will commence on December 5 in Colombia and will be the first qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Read: CWG 2022: Weightlifter Sanket Mahadev Sargar undergoes elbow surgery, to be out of action for more than 6 months

The Asian Championships, meanwhile, starts on October 6 in Manama, Bahrain. With senior lifters missing in action, junior weigtlifters will get an opportunity to participate in the event.

"The senior pro weightlifters will be taking part in the World Championships as that is the first qualifying event for the Paris Olympics. None of the lifters want to leave it late and qualify at the earliest. So the seniors will miss the Asian Championships to prepare for the World Championships," the national coach confirmed.

The Indian contingent had a good showing at the Commonwealth Games, where they won 10 medals.

Indian weightlifting senior team to have camp in USA

Meanwhile, weightlifters Mirabai Chanu, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Achinta Sheuli, Sanket Sargar, Bindyarani Devi, Gurdeep Singh, R V Rahul, and Jhilli Dalabehera will leave for St. Louis, USA, for a 25-day strength and conditioning training camp, starting August 25.

The Indian weightlifting contingent will work with Dr. Aaron Horschig, a former weightlifter-turned-strength and conditioning coach.

Horschig is an instrumental figure in the Indian weightlifting scene. He has fine-tuned Mirabai Chanu's snatch technique in the recent past, which has been lauded by many.

Chanu, a CWG gold medalist, has been working with Horschig since 2020. She was a part of a strength and conditioning camp ahead of CWG 2022.