India's Bindyarani Devi won silver in the women's 55kg competition at the Asian Championships in Jinju, South Korea on Saturday.
The Commonwealth Games silver medallist had a total effort of 194kg (83kg+111kg), as she opened India's medal tally in this edition of the championship. On Friday, Mirabai Chanu had finished sixth in the 49kg division.
Bindyarani was, though, competing in a non-Olympic weight category. Chen Guan Ling of Chinese Taipei won the gold with a 204kg (90kg+114kg) effort while Vietnam's Vo Thi Quynh Nhu 192kg (88kg+104kg) won bronze in a depleted field.
"I'm happy with my performance today. I had injured my left knee before the trials. Once that was okay, I had issues with my right one so my training was affected and I couldn't give my best," she told PTI. "Before the injury, I had improved my personal best but the injury affected my training and we wanted to take it easy. At the Asian Games, I will win gold for sure," Bindyarani said.
Meanwhile, she hasn't been able to speak to her family back home due to the ongoing violence in the state of Manipur.
"I haven't been able to speak to my parents for the past two days," she told PTI a couple of hours after her win. "My mother blesses me before all my competitions. But today, I couldn't speak to her.".
"The internet is shut down, I haven't been able to talk to them, I am scared. Even today, before going for the competition I felt like crying," she said. ""There was no violence around my house [Langol Ningthou Leikai on the outskirts of Imphal] the last time I spoke but now I don't know what is happening. When I spoke to my family three days ago, at that time this issue was not so big. But now things have become quite bad."
Internet services have been suspended for five days to prevent disturbance of peace and public order, while the state government on Thursday also authorised all district magistrates to issue "shoot at sight orders" in "extreme cases". According to the latest official count, the conflict has claimed the lives of more than 50 people.