Mirabai Chanu returns home to warm reception

New Delhi: Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu has landed at the Delhi Airport after her successful campaign at the Summer Games in Tokyo last week. The 27-year-old arrived in New Delhi to a rousing reception in the capital with chants of "Bharat Mata ki Jai" among others.

Mirabai Chanu became the first Indian athlete to win a medal on the first day of the Olympics and is only the second after Karnam Malleswari to clinch a medal in weightlifting in over two decades.

The athlete from Manipur was escorted out of the airport by security personnel while the airport staff cheered her on. Mirabai, who was wearing her India training jersey, did not have the silver medal around her neck though.

Chanu opened the country's account with a silver in the women's 49 kg category at the Tokyo Games, finally exorcising the ghosts of her disastrous outing in the Rio Games five years ago. For the former world champion, this was the one medal she has been desperately waiting for. The diminutive iron lady from Manipur lifted a total of 202kg (87kg+115kg) to better Karnam Malleswari's bronze in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. With this, she exorcised the ghosts of the 2016 Games where she had failed to log a single legitimate lift, leaving her shattered.