When Rishikanta Singh Chanambam climbed onto the podium in the men’s 60kg weightlifting competition at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Sunday, his biggest supporters gathered in front of their mobile phones in Uttarlai, Barmer, Rajasthan, more than 7,000 kilometers away.Although Rishikanta comes from Ngairangbam Makha Maning Leikai ManipurLocated in Imphal West district, his parents have been living with his elder brother, Amarjit Singhin Rajasthan over the past few months. His father is undergoing treatment for blood cancer at AIIMS, Jodhpur. He has completed three rounds of chemotherapy and is responding well.Although Rishikanta won the silver medal with a total of 264 kg, the thought of his father was never far from his mind.“Our life was very difficult and I was always trying to make him smile because I never spent much time with him,” Rishikantha said in an exclusive interaction with him. toy. “The last time I was home, I even took him to a motorcycle showroom so he could finally buy himself one.”However, taking care of his family has been Rishikanta’s priority since childhood.“I used to work as a daily wage earner with some friends,” recalls the 28-year-old. “I worked for about two to three months. I am not a skilled worker, so I mainly helped with any work I could do and earned about 150 rupees a day.”He initially took up the job to earn enough money to study at a private school like many of his friends. But as the family’s financial difficulties intensified, the money he earned was used to support the family.While both his parents worked as daily wage laborers on other people’s farms, his father also worked as a taxi driver to supplement the family income. Even so, they struggled to support a family of six – parents, two sons and two daughters.“We don’t even have farmland,” said Amarjit, who has been serving in the Indian Air Force since 2012. “Our parents work in other people’s fields to make a living.”It was not until Amarjit found a job that the family’s fortunes began to change. Until then, every rupee counted, and Rishkantha’s dreams often relied on his brother’s support. “My brother is like a second father to me,” Rishkantha said. “There was a time when I had no income and he paid for my training and competition. Everything I am today is because of him.”Amarjit never thought twice before offering help and today he is very proud of his brother’s achievements.As for Rishkantha’s sports journey, it started after a senior coach convinced his family to send him to the National Sports Academy in Imphal for a trial. He gained selection and spent his formative years under Brojendro Singh before entering the Sports Authority of India (SAI) system.However, the road has not been smooth. After leaving the academy as he grew older, he was forced to stay at home for several months without training before coaches and officials helped him resume his career at the SAI National Center of Excellence. Later he joined indian navy In 2019, this provided him with financial security before breaking into the national team. He has been training under national team chief coach Vijay Sharma in Modi Nagar for the past two years.Ironically, weightlifting was not Rishikanta’s first love.“My dream is to be a boxer,” he said. “I even trained boxing for a while because I admired the sport after watching Dinko Singh. But once I started competing in weightlifting and won a competition, I realized this is where I belonged.”This decision changed his life.Rishikantha narrowly missed out on a medal at the last Commonwealth Games, setting a CWG record 121kg in the Glasgow snatch and looked set to win gold in Glasgow. But a knee injury that had plagued him in the weeks leading up to the competition limited his clean and jerk competition and ultimately cost him the silver medal. However, this medal made him the first male weightlifter from Manipur to reach the podium at the Commonwealth Games.“I believe if I had fully recovered, I could have won the gold medal,” Rishkantha admitted. “The injury didn’t allow me to train the way I wanted to before the game.”For Rishkantha, however, the silver medal represents much more than just a medal. It’s a tribute to his parents who worked for years to keep the family afloat, to his brother who he still calls his “second father” and a promise to the little boy who once earned Rs 150 a day that one day he would make all their sacrifices worth it.
