A silver worth more than gold: How Rishikanta Singh made history for Manipur
The gold was there for the taking. Rishikanta Singh had just broken the Commonwealth Games snatch record and stood atop the leaderboard in the men’s 60kg weightlifting competition. Then his troublesome knee gave way.
The clean and jerk became less about lifting the barbell and more about battling through pain. By the end of the evening in Glasgow, the Indian settled for silver. Yet as he stepped off the platform, the colour of the medal mattered far less than what it represented.
Rishikanta had become the first male weightlifter from Manipur to win a Commonwealth Games medal, carving out a place in the sporting history of a state that has produced some of India’s finest lifters.
THE GOLD THAT GOT AWAY
The 28-year-old looked destined for the top of the podium after producing a Commonwealth Games record lift of 121kg in the snatch. It handed him the overall lead heading into the clean and jerk, where he needed one more strong performance to clinch gold.
But an injury suffered just a week before the competition returned at the worst possible moment.
Rishikanta managed to successfully complete a lift of 143kg but failed in his attempts at 148kg and 151kg as his injured knee prevented him from generating the power required to push the bar overhead. He finished with a total of 264kg, enough for silver but not the gold he had travelled to Glasgow hoping to win.
“I came here for gold. After the snatch, I was in the leading position, but my knee created a problem. I was able to clean the weight but could not push because one thigh was not working properly. I tried my best,” Rishikanta told PTI.
He later revealed that securing a medal became the priority once the injury worsened.
“I told guruji that we should take one lift to secure the medal and then push. I did not want to lose the medal,” he said.
A FIRST FOR MANIPUR
For Manipur, however, Rishikanta’s silver was about much more than finishing second.
The northeastern state has long been regarded as India’s weightlifting heartland, producing world-class athletes and international medallists, particularly on the women’s side. Yet, remarkably, no male weightlifter from Manipur had previously represented India at the Commonwealth Games.
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Rishikanta changed that in Glasgow, and in doing so became the state’s first male Commonwealth Games medallist in the sport.
A JOURNEY OF PERSEVERANCE
His rise has been shaped by perseverance as much as talent.
Growing up in a modest household in Manipur, Rishikanta watched his father work as a daily-wage labourer while the family battled financial hardship. He began training at the National Sports Academy in Imphal before progressing through India’s elite weightlifting system, later representing the Indian Army and emerging as one of the country’s brightest prospects.
His breakthrough came at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships, where a record-breaking performance established him as one of India’s strongest medal hopes heading into Glasgow.
Gold may have slipped away because of an untimely injury, but Rishikanta returned home with something equally enduring. His silver rewrote history for Manipur, proving that one medal can carry a significance far greater than its colour.
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