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 in Tashkent.
The 18-year-old, who suffered a knee injury at the Asian Championships in Tashkent 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.
Olympic trials: TTFI seeks MEA's help in getting visa for para contingent
The Table Tennis Federation of India has approached the Ministry of External Affairs for procuring visa for its para players, who are cleared by SAI to take part in Olympic trials in Slovenia next month.
The trials are scheduled from June 3-5.
The MEA's help has been sought as the Slovenian Embassy in Delhi is closed to due to COVID-19 induced lockdown.
The TTFI wrote to MEA on Monday.
The six-member contingent due to take part in the Olympic trials include three players Vaishnavi Sutar, Trivendra Singh and Sonal Patel, coach Jayesh Acharya and two escorts.
More practice for Indian shooters in Croatia
Indian shooters based in Croatia will get more competition-like practice at the European Championship after it was decided that they would also be shooting the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) round in the Mixed Team and Rifle Prone events.
Originally, they were scheduled to participate in the individual Olympic events only.
The Mixed Team events are scheduled on Wednesday while the Rifle Prone events will take place on Thursday.
In the Mixed Team events, Indian shooters would be able to shoot only one of three rounds but as the coaches put it, “any practice at this level is good practice.”
In their first MQS outing on Monday, the Indian shooters continued to give a good account of themselves when as many as five of the 10 in action managed scores that would have taken them to the regular finals.
