Indian women weightlifters bagged four berths at next year's Athens Olympics, finishing eighth in the team standings at the World Weightlifting championships which concluded in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday.
Though the seven-member women's team, which included World No. 5 N Kunjarani Devi in 48-kg and Pratima Kumari in the 63-kg, ended their campaign without a medal, their combined performance saw India finish in the top ten.
According to the Olympics qualification rules, the top nine countries in the women's section at the World Championship can send four lifters of their choice to the Athens Games.
The other nations which won the honour are China, Thailand, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Colombia, South Korea who finished in the 1-7 places and Turkey, who came ninth.
The final standings are provisional pending the results of drug tests which are expected in a fortnight.
The top three Indian performers at the meet were Kunjarani, Sanamacha Chanu and Nandini Devi (both 53-kg) who produced their season's best performance.
While the 35-year-old Kunjarani lifted 182.5 kg to finish fifth, Nandini and Chanu recorded 200-kg and 190-kg to finish sixth and seventh respectively.
Not living upto their billing were World No. 5 Pratima Kumari (63-kg) and Sydney Olympics bronze medallist Karnam Malleshwari, who competed in the 75-kg class.
Pratima, who ended 12th, lifted only 210-kg against her season's best show of 220-kg. Malleshwari too finished 12th, lifting a total of 235-kg.
Prasmita Magraj (58kg) and Sunaina (63kg) finished 18th in their respective weight categories.
While India was eighth with 104 points, China (187), Thailand (145) and Bulgaria (137) took the top three places in the women's team classification.
In the men's section, India was represented by only two lifters, both in the 56kg weight category. Vicky Batta and V Shrinivasa Rao could not make their presence felt and remained at 20th and 25th positions, respectively.
India was placed 45th in the group of 48 countries with China (187) grabbing the top spot followed by Turkey (164) and Russia (132) in the men's team classification.
