![\"As](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132675071,imgsize-189335,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-glasgow-on-sunday.jpg\" "\\"Rishikanta")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAs Rishikanta Singh Chanambam stepped onto the platform for the men\u2019s 60kg weightlifting competition at Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Sunday, his biggest supporters gathered around a mobile phone over 7,000km away in Uttarlai, Barmer, Rajasthan.Although Rishikanta hails from Ngairangbam Makha Maning Leikai in Manipur<\/a>\u2019s Imphal West district, his parents have been living with his elder brother, Amarjit Singh<\/a>, in Rajasthan for the past few months. His father is undergoing treatment for blood cancer at AIIMS Jodhpur, where he has already completed three rounds of chemotherapy and is responding well.Even as Rishikanta lifted a combined 264kg to claim the silver medal, thoughts of his father were never far from his mind.\u201cWe have had a very difficult life, and I\u2019ve always tried to make him smile because I never got to spend much time with him,\u201d Rishikanta said during an exclusive interaction with TOI<\/span>. \u201cThe last time I went home, I even took him to a scooter showroom so he could finally buy one for himself.\u201dLooking after his family, however, has been a priority for Rishikanta since childhood.\u201cI used to work as a daily-wage labourer with some of my friends,\u201d the 28-year-old recalled. \u201cI worked for about two to three months. I wasn\u2019t a skilled worker, so I mostly helped with whatever work was available and earned around \u20b9150 a day.\u201dHe initially took up the work to earn enough money to study in a private school like many of his friends. But as the family\u2019s financial struggles deepened, the money he earned also went towards supporting the household.While both his parents worked as daily-wage labourers on other people\u2019s farms, his father also worked as a taxi driver to supplement the family\u2019s income. Even then, they struggled to provide for a family of six \u2014 the parents, two sons and two daughters.\u201cWe don\u2019t even own farmland,\u201d said Amarjit, who has been serving in the Indian Air Force since 2012. \u201cOur parents worked on other people\u2019s fields to earn a living.\u201dThe family\u2019s fortunes began to change only after Amarjit secured a job. Until then, every rupee mattered, and Rishikanta\u2019s dream often depended on his elder brother\u2019s support. \u201cMy elder brother is like my second father,\u201d Rishikanta said. \u201cThere was a time when I had no income. He paid for my training and competitions. Whatever I am today is because of him.\u201dAmarjit never thought twice before helping, and today he could not be prouder of what his younger brother has achieved.As for Rishikanta\u2019s sporting journey, it began after a veteran coach persuaded the family to send him for trials at National Sports Academy in Imphal. He earned selection and spent his formative years there under Brojendro Singh before progressing through the Sports Authority of India\u2019s (SAI) system.The road, however, was anything but smooth. After ageing out of the academy, he was forced to stay at home for several months without training before coaches and officials helped him resume his career at SAI National Centre of Excellence. He later joined Indian Navy<\/a> in 2019, which provided him with financial security before breaking into the national camp. Over the past two years, he has trained under chief national coach Vijay Sharma in Modinagar.Ironically, weightlifting wasn\u2019t Rishikanta\u2019s first love.\u201cMy dream was to become a boxer,\u201d he said. \u201cI even trained in boxing for a while because I admired the sport after watching Dingko Singh. But once I started competing in weightlifting and won a tournament, I realised this was where I belonged.\u201dThat decision transformed his life.Having narrowly missed out on a medal at the previous Commonwealth Games, Rishikanta looked set to crown his journey with gold in Glasgow after setting a CWG record of 121kg in the snatch. But a lingering knee injury, which had troubled him for weeks leading up to the competition, limited him in the clean and jerk, leaving him with silver. The medal, however, made him the first male weightlifter from Manipur to stand on the Commonwealth Games podium.\u201cI believe I could have won gold if I had been fully fit,\u201d Rishikanta admitted. \u201cThe injury didn\u2019t allow me to train the way I wanted before the competition.\u201dFor Rishikanta, however, the silver represented far more than a medal. It was a tribute to parents who spent years working as labourers to keep the family afloat, an elder brother he still calls his \u201csecond father\u201d, and the promise of a young boy who once earned \u20b9150 a day as a labourer that he would one day make all their sacrifices worthwhile.<\/div>\n Rishikanta Singh Chanambam (right) with his family in Imphal and (pic right) after winning silver in Glasgow on Sunday. As Rishikanta Singh Chanambam stepped onto the platform for the men\u2019s 60kg weightlifting competition at Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Sunday, his biggest supporters gathered around a mobile phone over 7,000km away in Uttarlai, Barmer, Rajasthan.Although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla-150x150.avif","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla-300x169.avif","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Rishikanta Singh Chanambam (right) with his family in Imphal and (pic right) after winning silver in Glasgow on Sunday. As Rishikanta Singh Chanambam stepped onto the platform for the men\u2019s 60kg weightlifting competition at Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Sunday, his biggest supporters gathered around a mobile phone over 7,000km away in Uttarlai, Barmer, Rajasthan.Although […]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":1,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":4,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla.avif",400,225,false],"medium":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla-300x169.avif",300,169,true],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/rishikanta-singh-chanambam-right-with-his-family-in-imphal-and-pic-right-after-winning-silver-in-gla-150x150.avif",150,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/author\/admin"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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