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Sports

Manipur’s Ritu Chanu Set to Become State’s First Commonwealth Games Para-Athlete

By Sentinel NE Desk · July 23, 2026 · 3 min read
Photo: Lee Vilenski via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Image used for illustration; not from the Commonwealth Games.
Wheelchair basketball action at a GB Wheelchair Rugby Allied Mobility tournament, Plymouth Lifecentre
Wheelchair basketball action at a 2025 GB tournament in Plymouth. Photo: Lee Vilenski via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Image is illustrative and not from the Commonwealth Games.

Irengbam Ritu Chanu of Nambol in Manipur’s Bishnupur district is set to become the first athlete from the state to represent India in a disability sport at the Commonwealth Games, when the 3×3 wheelchair basketball competition opens in Glasgow on July 24. Chanu is one of four players on India’s debut women’s wheelchair basketball squad at the Games, alongside Minakshi Jadhav and Reena Gupta of Maharashtra and Laxmi Rayannavar of Karnataka.

The Indian team qualified for Glasgow 2026 through the 2025 IWBF Asia-Oceania Championships in Bangkok, marking the country’s first appearance in the event since 3×3 wheelchair basketball was introduced at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. The squad completed a training camp at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Training Centre for Disability Sports in Gwalior before departing from Delhi for Glasgow on July 21, according to the Wheelchair Basketball Association, Manipur (WBAM).

Chanu’s path to international competition began with a childhood accident. At around six or seven years old, she was struck by a bus moving in reverse gear, an injury that led to the amputation of her right leg above the knee. She now trains at the Khuman Lampak Sports Complex in Imphal, where she has competed in three National championships. Her performance at the most recent Nationals, where Manipur finished runner-up to Maharashtra, was decisive in her selection for the national squad.

WBAM said Chanu faced financial constraints early in her sporting career, support that association president L. Dhaneshwor Singh helped arrange so she could continue attending national camps; this will be her third. Chanu has said she supplements her income through weaving at home in Manipur, alongside support from the state government and her elder sister. WBAM members, coaches and her family gathered at Imphal International Airport to see her off ahead of the Games.

India’s quartet will compete in a round-robin format across two groups of four teams, with the top two from each group advancing to the semifinals. Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India president Varun Ahlawat said the team trained well in Gwalior and is aiming for a medal in its first appearance at the Games, a target team captain Minakshi Jadhav — who took up the sport after a spinal cord injury in 2012 — has echoed publicly. WBFI vice-president Ulhas KS is accompanying the squad to Glasgow as team leader.

WBAM general secretary Md. Yunus Khan said Chanu’s selection was a “proud milestone” for both Manipur and the state’s disabled sporting community, and the association appealed to the state government to extend greater support to para-athletes going forward. Should India’s wheelchair 3×3 team medal in Glasgow, it would mark the first such achievement for the country in the discipline at any Commonwealth Games.

Compiled from reporting by Business Standard (PTI), Imphal Times, and Northeast Today. Sentinel NE Desk cross-checked these accounts before publication; Imphal Times carried WBAM’s departure statement in full, while the PTI report added on-record detail from Chanu and Jadhav after the team’s arrival in Gwalior.

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