Who Is Bindyarani Devi? Weightlifter Wins Bronze At IWF World Cup

25-year-old weightlifter Bindyarani Devi, an Imphal native, made the country proud by winning a bronze at the IWF World Cup in the 55-kg category after a career hiatus owing to an injury. In 2023, Devi switched to the 59 kg category, which is a Paris Olympics category, at the World Championships and secured 25th position. She sustained an injury just before the selection trial for this year's Asian Championships due to which she had to switch back to 55 kg. Though her win is in a non-Olympic category, it may help her in the Olympic selection.

Who Is Bindyarani Devi? Weightlifter Wins Bronze At IWF World Cup

Bindyarani Devi who did not start well in the Phuket tournament by dropping her first snatch in an attempt to lift 83 kgs bounced back redeeming herself as a tough contender in the IWF World Cup tournament. 

The Common Wealth silver-medalist secured the third position in the finals with a strong total lift of 196 kgs winning back a bronze home 55 kgs women's category finishing up after North Korea’s Kang Hyon Gyong and Romania’s Cambei Mihaela-Valentina. The Manipur lifter also bagged home another silver in a clean and jerk lift in a 113 kg lift.

The lifter who was injured for 6 months and had to spend 4 months resting with very light workouts bounced back to prove her worth by securing the top third position for the country on International grounds despite recently recovering from an injury.

Who Is Bindyarani Devi?

Devi lifted an effort of 83 kg and 111kg in snatch and clean and jerk events respectively making her total effort 194 kg. In the snatch event, she lifted 80 and 83 kg easily and went for 85 kg but failed. She was placed fourth after the snatch event but she covered it up by lifting 111 kg in clean and jerk.

She went on to try 115 kg but failed to lift, landing her in second position in the tournament. Devi had participated in the Commonwealth Games last year where she had successfully lifted 116 kg in clean and jerk.

Devi is reportedly aiming at the 2024 Paris Olympics and participating in these tournaments just because it is a qualification rule for the Olympics which makes it compulsory for lifters to participate in the 2024 World Cup and 2023 World Championships.

Bindyarani Devi had competed in two compulsory events for the Olympics 2024 and just needed to participate in one more additional event. The final assessment will be based on a lifter's three best performances based on which they will be selected for the Olympics.

Another Indian lifter Mirabai Chanu became the first Indian lifter to secure her position in the 2024 Olympics while Devi's category was not an Olympic category, winning her just a bronze spot in the World Cup finals.