Indian weightlifters earn two quota places for Olympics

The women lifters collected 100 points to finish third, while the men finished sixth with 129 points to earn two quota places on offer for countries who had yet to qualify through the overall team ranking.

The Indian Weightlifting Federation vice-president Sahdev Yadav confirmed that the federation will conduct trials to decide the best two lifters who will represent India.

"We have secured two quota places, one each in men's and women's categories. Now we will be holding trials to select the best two lifters who will represent India at the Rio Games," IWLF vice-president Sahdev Yadav told PTI.

"We will give our lifters some time to recover and then we will decide on a date to hold the trials," said Yadav.

In the Senior Asian Championships at Tashkent, Indian women lifters produced an impressive performance with 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Saikhom Mirabai Chanu breaking the national record in snatch with an 84kg lift. She also equalled the national record in the overall lift with 190kg (106kg in clean &jerk) to finish 7th in the 48kg category.

Yadav said that if Mirabai can improve her performance by four kilograms in the next three months, then she can hope for a podium finish at the Olympics.

"Mirabai came up with an impressive show at Tashkent and we will ensure that she works harder to improve by another four kgs. If she manages to achieve that, she has a good chance of winning a bronze medal at Olympics," Yadav said.