India failed to get a qualification slot for the London Olympic Games weightlifting competition by finishing outside the stipulated placings in the team championships at the World weightlifting championships that concluded in Paris on Sunday.
The Indian men finished 38th while the women came 27th in the rankings table drawn up after taking into consideration the points of the teams in the just-concluded championships as well as the 2010 World championships.
The top 24 teams among men and 21 teams among women earned quota places for the London Games.
Slim chance
India will now have the chance, though bleak, of gaining a qualification slot from the continental championships in 2012.
It can hope to get a maximum of one entry each in the men's and women's events through the Asian championships, by placing among the top seven among men and top six among women.
Those countries that have gained quota places would not be eligible for getting any qualification berth from the continental championships.
If India does not earn a quota place even from the Asian meet, it will have to depend then on a possible tripartite invitation place or individual qualification.
Last time, at the Beijing Olympics, India had its lone weightlifter (Monika Devi in the 69kg category) withdrawn following an adverse dope report at home prior to the team's departure.
India had earned four women's quota places in the 2004 Athens Olympics by coming eighth in the team classification in the Vancouver Worlds.
This time, the Indian women, with Sonia Chanu taking the sixth place in the 48kg category in Paris did better than in the 2010 championships by compiling 54 points in the latest championships as against 31 in the previous meet.
The men's tally came down from 18 to 13.
Poor fare
The Indian fare continued to be poor on the last two days of the championships.
In the women's 63kg category, Hijam P. Chanu finished 25th with a total of 180kg.
In the men's 94kg class, Chandrakant Mali was 30th (148, 176, 324kg).
The difference in standards from the top-level lifters could be gauged from the fact that the winner in this weight, Ilya Ilyn of Kazakhstan compiled 407kg.
More glaring was the leeway in the men's over-105kg category with the Indian entry, Rupinder Singh, totaling 329kg for his 38th place finish and the winner, Iranian Behdad Salimkordasiabi, compiling 464kg (snatch 214, clean and jerk 250), a whopping 135-kg difference.