Rishikanta Singh created a Commonwealth Games record in the snatch category of the Men’s 60-Kg event at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games on July 26 (Sunday). This raised hopes in the hearts of the Indians who expected that their first Gold at the event was not far away.
However, Rishikanta failed to match the expectations and his own personal best in clean and jerk. After bettering his personal bets of 120 kg in snatch, the Indians failed at clean and jerk lifts of 148 kg and 151 kg, registering only one clean lift of 143 kg.
Why Rishikanta won only Silver despite creating Games Record?
This lone clean and jerk lift took Rishakanta’s total to 264kg, far away from his personal best of 271 kg, and as result, he lost the Gold to Malaysia’s Mohammad Aniq Bin Kasdan, who lifted 149 kg in clean and jerk to go with his 121 kg in snatch. The Indian finished with a Silver, which took the team’s medal tally to two after Jhandu Kumar’s bronze in powerlifting.
Who is Rishikanta Singh?
Born in Ngairangbam Makha Maning Leikai in Imphal West in 1998, Rishikanta comes from the state of Manipur, which is also the home of India’s CWG 2026 flag-bearer and Olympic medalist- Mirabai Chanu.
The 28-year-old has followed a trajectory common to most Indian male weightlifters perform well at the National Sports Academies or State level Sports Authority of India (SAI) centres, in Rishikanta’s case- National Sports Academy at the Khuman Lampak Stadium in Imphal, join the Indian Army, train at Army Institute of Sports in Pune and then head to National Institute of Sports in Patiala, before embarking on senior India journey.
Rishikanta, who won the National Weightlifting Championship 2025, is also a Gold medalist from Commonwealth Championship 2025, held in Ahmedabad. Despite winning Junior Commonwealth Championships way back in 2016, he missed out on the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.
