Cristiano Ronaldo fan Maibam Chingkheinganba scaling new mountains in Sport Climbing despite challenges

Published at :August 14, 2023 at 7:30 AM

Modified at :January 13, 2024 at 5:44 PM

(Courtesy : @maichii_maibam/Instagram)

The 20-year-old recently finished 31st in the IFSC World Climbing Championships.

Maibam Chingkheinganba recently finished 31st in men’s bouldering at the IFSC World Climbing Championships, which is the highest finish for any Indian taking into account the performances in World Cup and World Championships. The 20-year-old from Manipur has been into Sport Climbing for more than a decade specializing in lead and bouldering.

He has won three medals at the Asian Youth Championships (2 gold and 1 silver) and his performance at the World is Maibam’s first major success at the senior level. Hrithik Marne along with Maibam were the two Indians to take part in the World Championships earlier this month in men’s section.

Khel Now got an opportunity to interact with Maibam Chingkheinganba after his momentous run. Here are the excerpts.

Highest ever finish by an Indian at the World Stage

“I felt really happy when I finished 31st out of the 129 participants but there is still room for improvement. Before the competition my aim was to finish in the top 50 and to be honest, I know the difference between me and the other top climbers, so I set up an achievable target.

“At the championships, I got five routes to climb out of which I got to two tops and had I reached another ‘top’ then definitely I would have been in top 20 which would have been a massive achievement.

Maibam Chingkheinganba — **Maibam finished 31st out of the 129 participants in the IFSC World Climbing Championships (Courtesy: @maichii_maibam/Instagram)**

“I reached to top of one of the routes which even the strong climbers wouldn’t climb. And people went crazy after seeing me reaching the top of the route. As I said before, had I got to top 20 then I could have reached the semi-finals as well.

Difference between Bouldering and Lead and importance of route setting

Maibam, after a dominating performance in bouldering, couldn’t replicate the same in lead climbing and finished outside the top 70s. He answered stating, “Bouldering is short and powerful i.e., moves are pretty powerful. The number of moves in lead are more (40 plus) compared to bouldering; meaning you need more endurance. I haven’t done enough training to gain good endurance. Endurance for bouldering is less compared to lead.

“The route setting is completely different in Europe and these kinds of routes we do not find in India. We can make bouldering routes ourselves and also copy them, but the route setting for lead cannot be copied and is totally different. Route setters set up prominent routes across the world but in India we hardly have any route setters, which is why lead climbing becomes very tough to execute in the competitions as we are not used to climbing tougher and different routes.”

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Initial journey and struggles

“I played several sports before taking up Sport Climbing. With Manipur being famous for football, I took up football professionally and joined a small club, but the sport is very hard with the competition being very tough. I like Cristiano Ronaldo a lot as well.

“My brother was into climbing and we had a pretty good wall at that time in Manipur (around 10 years ago). Initially, we had the setup only for lead, so I started with lead climbing and then slowly started practising for bouldering. My brother trained me and helped me to take up the sport.

“Soon I got selected for the zonals (Northeast) when I was nine and even progressed to the final. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to the podium so missed out on making it to the nationals. The journey since has been pretty good. On the other hand, I faced struggles financially as we need to travel a lot and all the travel expenses are taken care from our pocket.

“I know few players who without fund missed out on taking part in the nationals even after qualifying. Approaching the sponsors is also pretty tough and even if we get any it isn’t a long-time contract rather very short.

“Also focusing on studies and training became very difficult at one point. So, I stopped studies in the first year of my bachelors. But I will definitely look finish the bachelor’s degree at one point and then stop further studies.”

Infrastructure in India

“In India we do not get good walls, holes, and route setters. Other prominent countries have good routes to practise and get new route to practise every day and in India we get to practise in one route for close to a month.

“The climbing culture is totally different in foreign countries — in terms of the style of climbing and the route setting. Normal people indulge in Sport Climbing as their hobby in foreign countries. There they have compact climbing gyms, and the holes are of good brands. On the contrary, it is very tough to get these holes to India from Europe or other countries due to high taxes (due to which the prize gets doubled from the original amount).

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“Infrastructure as a whole is slowly getting better and places like Bangalore are slowly growing. The main problem which I mentioned before is that there aren’t proper holes and route setters. A single hole at minimum cost around Rs 20,000 and with import the price jumps to Rs 30,000. Other Asian countries like Japan do not levy tax on the holes if they order with the name of the sport which isn’t the same in India. The quality of climbing walls has improved, the holes need more upgradation.

“Japan has close to 700 climbing gyms and in India it is around just 10. During my short stay in Japan few months back I was shocked to see the culture there and got to learn many new things. The difference between a gym and climbing gym is that – normal gyms are related to cardiac, muscle building etc whereas climbing gym is a combination of a normal gym alongside equipments related to lead, speed , and bouldering.”

“One difference between Japan and Europe is that the climbers in Japan train in a group but in Europe they train individually. The people in Europe want to stay alone as there are many gyms available to train whereas in Japan the gyms are compact so people needs to train together. In terms of infrastructure Europe is the best whereas Japan provides best route setting.

“Boulder Box in Delhi help me with my travelling expenses. I currently train there and they know know me pretty well and during my free time work there in setting routes etc on a part-time basis. With Manipur not having upgraded the walls it is very difficult to practise there so I stay away from my family and stay in Delhi for my practise.

“IMF paid for the abroad trip during the Asian Youth circuit and we travelled as a team. Also winning a medal in Asian Youth circuit is easy comparatively, but for the World circuit we have to look after ourselves.”

Non-participation in Asian Games

“I was kept in the reserves based on the selection trials done last year in 2022. I have improved a lot in the past one year and I feel I might still be able to feature in the main squad. The names have been sent to IOA and the final squad will be decided on or before the first week of September. Few climbers, who haven’t travelled abroad are practising in the national camp in Bangalore and I might join post the ongoing trip.

“My family is safe in Manipur, and they live in Imphal which isn’t much affected. While travelling abroad for tournaments, I feel like taking care of my home as anyone can come and damage in the clashes. The situation has got better for the past month with the internet ban lifted. I am able to contact my family everyday which wasn’t the case before.”

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