Mirabai Chanu wins gold on return at Commonwealth.

Mirabai Chanu wins gold on return at Commonwealth.

When Mirabai Chanu returns to the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in 2025, she wins gold.

The 30th iteration of the 1980-founded Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships was a qualifying event for the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

There was fierce competition in the senior, junior, and youth divisions, with about 300 competitors from 31 countries taking part. The Indian team, captained by Olympic winner Mirabai Chanu, included athletes Bindyarani Devi (58 kg), Harjinder Kaur (69 kg), and Achinta Sheuli (79 kg).

Direct qualification for the 2026 Commonwealth Games was provided by the championships, which were staged in India for the third time after Greater Noida (2023) and Pune (2015). On Monday, August 25, 2025, Mirabai Chanu returned to the competition scene and won the gold medal in the women’s 48 kg division at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Ahmedabad. The silver medallist from the Tokyo Olympics, who is participating for the first time since a devastating fourth-place result at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, lifted 193 kg in total, 84 kg in snatch, and 109 kg in clean and jerk to take first position on the podium.

After a year that was supposedly filled with injuries, this triumph not only signalled her return but also guaranteed her a spot at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with her sights set on the World Weightlifting Championships later this year.

Mirabai Chanu takes gold at the 2025 Championships after making a comeback.

Mirabai Chanu outperformed her rivals, solidifying her supremacy in a weight class in which she had previously won gold at the 2017 World Championship and silver and gold at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games. The 2025 Championships marked Chanu’s return to the 48 kg category, a weight class she hadn’t competed in since 2018, following the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) restructuring of Olympic weight categories for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Having competed in the 49 kg division since 2019, where she won Olympic silver in 2020, Commonwealth Games gold in 2022, and a World Championship silver in 2022, Chanu embraced the challenge of dropping to 48 kg.

‘I’m delighted to be back in competition.

According to reports, Chanu said, “Now everything is fine, and recovery is good.” The 31-year-old weightlifter, who has reportedly struggled with a number of problems, including hip tendinitis since the 2023 Asian Games, showed caution by entering the tournament with a small entry total of 192 kg, seven kilograms less than her Paris effort. She topped the 48 kg field with grace and accuracy, though, suggesting that her platform performance was anything but conservative.