Jeremy misses World Weightlifting Championships due to injury

RIYADH: Commonwealth Games medalist Jeremy Lalrinnunga will miss the World Weightlifting Championships 2023 which will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from September 4 to 17, due to his injury. According to Olympics.com, Lalrinnunga did not show up in the trials conducted by the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF).

World Weightlifting Championships is a mandatory qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Lalrinnunga suffered a back injury in May and his absence in World Weightlifting Championships will leave his chances to qualify for Paris 2024 in jeopardy. The 20-year-old Lalrinnunga also did not make the cut for the Indian weightlifting team for the Asian Games 2023, announced earlier this month.

The Indian weightlifter also declined IWLF's offer of medical treatment in the USA, following which, he was released from the national camp. Sanket Sagar, a Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medallist in the men's 55kg, has also been dropped from the national camp due to non-performance. "We wanted to send him (Jeremy Lalrinnunga) to St. Louis in the USA for rehabilitation under the guidance of Dr Aaron Horschig...considering the way Dr Horschig has worked on Mirabai Chanu," IWLF president Sahdev Yadav told media.

"But Jeremy wrote to me saying he doesn't want to go. He didn't even state a reason for his refusal. He has been taking medical advice from a Mumbai-based doctor," Yadav said. Lalrinnunga can make his way back into the national camp should he win the national championships, likely to be held early next year. The reigning Commonwealth Games champion (67kg), Jeremy Lalrinnunga, is currently rehabilitating at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.