While father battles blood cancer, Rishikanta bags CWG silverware

Rishikanta Singh Chanambam (right) with his family in Imphal and (pictured right) after Sunday’s silver in Glasgow. As Rishikanta Singh Chanambam stepped onto the platform for the men’s 60kg weightlifting event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games on Sunday, his biggest supporters gathered around a mobile phone more than 7,000 km away in Uttarlai, Barmer, Rajasthan.Although Rishikanta hails from Ngairangbam Makha Maning Leikai in Manipur’s Imphal West district, his parents have been living with his elder brother Amarjit Singh in Rajasthan for the past few months. His father is being treated 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 win the silver medal, thoughts of his father were never far from his mind.“We had a very difficult life and I always tried to make him laugh because I never spent much time with him,” Rishikanta said during an exclusive interaction with TOI. “The last time I went home, I even took him to a scooter showroom so he could finally buy one for himself.However, taking care of family has been a priority for Rishikanta since childhood.“I was working as a daily wage laborer with some of my friends,” the 28-year-old recalled. “I worked for about two to three months. I was not a skilled worker, so I mostly helped out with whatever work was available and earned around ₹150 a day.”At first, he started working to earn enough money to attend a private school like many of his friends. But as the family’s financial problems worsened, the money he earned also went to support the household.While both his parents worked as day laborers on foreign farms, his father also worked as a taxi driver to supplement the family income. Even then, they struggled to provide for a family of six—parents, two sons, and two daughters.“We don’t even own agricultural land,” said Amarjit, who has served in the Indian Air Force since 2012. “Our parents worked in other people’s fields to earn a living.”The fortunes of the family began to change only after Amarjit secured a job. Until then, every rupee mattered and Rishikant’s dream often depended on his elder brother’s support. “My elder brother is like my second father,” said Rishikanta. “There was a time when I had no income. He paid me to train and race. Whatever I am today is because of him.”Amarjit never thought before helping and today he couldn’t be prouder of what his younger brother has achieved.As for Rishikant’s sporting journey, it began after an experienced coach convinced his family to send him for trials at the National Sports Academy in Imphal. He gained selection and spent his formative years there under Brojendra Singh before coming through the Sports Authority of India (SAI) system.However, the journey was anything but smooth. After aging out of the academy, he was forced to stay at home without training for several months before coaches and officials helped him resume his career at the SAI National Center of Excellence. He later joined the Indian Navy in 2019, which provided him with financial security before breaking into the national camp. During the last two years, he trained under the head national coach Vijay Sharma in Modinagar.Ironically, weightlifting was not Rishikant’s first love.“My dream was to become a boxer,” he said. “I 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 realized that this is where I belong.”This decision changed his life.After narrowly missing 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 that plagued him weeks before the competition limited him in the clean and jerk, leaving him with silver. However, the medal made him the first weightlifter from Manipur to stand on the Commonwealth Games podium.“I believe I could win the gold if I was fully fit,” admitted Rishikanta. “The injury did not allow me to train as much as I wanted before the competition.”But for Rishikanta, the silver meant much more than a medal. It was a tribute to parents who worked as laborers for years to keep the family afloat, an elder brother whom he still calls his “second father” and a promise from a young boy who once earned ₹150 a day as a laborer that one day he would fulfill all their sacrifices.