Jeremy Lalrinnunga
India's teenage weightlifting sensation Jeremy Lalrinnunga's Olympic hopes took a hit on Tuesday as he missed the podium by a whisker in the Junior World Championships here.
The 18-year-old, who suffered a knee injury at the Asian Championships here last month, heaved 135kg in snatch and 165kg in clean and jerk for a total of 300kg, missing out on a third place finish by a kilogram in the 67kg category.
The Turkish duo of Muhammed Furkan Ozbek (141kg+176kg=317kg) and Yusuf Fehmi Genc (133kg+168kg=301kg) took home the gold and bronze medals respectively while Akmolda Sairamkez of Kazakhstan (132kg+176kg=308kg) clinched the silver.
Jeremy's effort at the gold level Olympic qualifier event was far from his personal best of 140kg in snatch, 167kg in clean and jerk and an overall total of 306kg.
Had the Indian, who is ranked 26th, lifted 313kg, he would have sealed his ticket to Tokyo by bagging the continental quota.
South Korea's Han Myeong-mok, who is ranked 21st, is likely to receive the Olympic berth based on the continental quota.
However, the 2018 Youth Olympics gold-medallist is still not out of contention for the Tokyo Games until the final list is made.
"We can't say whether Jeremy has qualified or not until the final list is made. He still has a chance," national coach Vijay Sharma told PTI.
"In the rankings, there are lifters from the same country above him so only one of them can participate, like there may be three from Colombia or China ahead of him right now.
"Countries can field lifters in four categories, until all countries confirm the final participation, we can't say anything," he added.
The Mizo lifter, who owns the youth world record in this weight category, was off to a disappointing start as he failed to lift 135kg on his first snatch attempt, however, he heaved the same weight in his second try.
Jeremy then attempted 139kg but failed to lift the barbell, finishing with a silver medal in the category.
In clean and jerk, he easily lifted 160kg and 165kg in his first two attempts but faltered in his bid to hoist 170kg, which would have been three kilograms more than his personal best that he achieved at the National Championship in February last year.
