Mirabai Chanu finally has an Asian Games medal. The Indian weightlifter won silver in the women’s 49kg event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Wednesday, September 23, with a combined lift of 198kg. It was her first podium finish at the continental Games and India’s first weightlifting medal at the event in 28 years.

North Korea’s Ri Song Gum took gold with 215kg, while Indonesia’s Luluk Diana Tri Wijayana finished third with 191kg. Chanu’s silver ended a wait dating back to the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, when Karnam Malleswari won silver for India.

Chanu completed all three of her snatch attempts and reached 87kg. She then lifted 107kg and 111kg in the clean and jerk, taking her overall total to 198kg. That was enough to secure second place behind Ri, whose 215kg total kept the gold beyond Chanu’s reach.

The result carried particular meaning for Chanu after a difficult history at the Asian Games. She finished ninth in 2014, missed the 2018 edition because of a back injury and narrowly missed a medal at Hangzhou in 2023, where an injury during the clean and jerk affected her campaign. This time, she completed the lifts she needed and left Nagoya with silver.

Chanu had already won medals at the Olympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games, but an Asian Games podium finish had remained out of reach. Her performance in Nagoya fills that gap in her record while returning Indian weightlifting to the Asian Games medal table for the first time since Malleswari’s 1998 silver.