If you are an Indian sports fan who does not follow cricket, the time following Paris 2024 has been a rough and dry period. Indian Wrestlers gear up for Asian Wrestling Championships
Nothing much has happened; all the big guns are rejuvenating themselves. Badminton- the one sport that has been giving us something to cheer about in the previous Olympic cycle, is going through a lull.
For wrestling too, 2025 has been dull. There have been two ranking series events so far- Zagreb open and the MuhametMalo tournament in Tirana, Albania- without any Indian participation, for no fathomable reason except administrative.
So, the Asian Wrestling Championships at Amman, Jordan (March 25th to 30th) is the first real international competition for Indian wrestlers. The trials threw up some interesting results. You may read the gist of it in this article- https://indiasportshub.com/team-india-announced-for-the-2025-asian-wrestling-championships/
We need to keep in mind that the overall standard of competition will not necessarily be the highest, even at the Asian level. The big stars are recovering after Paris 2024. So it is an opportunity for the youngsters in the squad to catch everyone’s attention.
Men’s freestyle
57kg:
There is some noise around Chirag in this category and rightly so. He is only the 2nd Indian male U23 world champion after Aman Sehrawat (Olympic bronze medallist). He competes in the category that has given India, the most success.
Rin Sakamoto of Japan will be a tough competitor- he recently won his 1st All-Japan title after moving from the US.
This is the first time a US-based wrestler has won the Japanese title after 1995. The wrestler with the highest pedigree in the field in Gulomjon Abdullaev- bronze medallist from Paris and someone who has given both Ravi Kumar and Aman some painful defeats. Other potential difficult matchups are against Milad Jahangir of Iran, Munkh Erdene of Mongolia and Rakhat Kalzan.
61 kg:
Udit won silver last year in 57kg in the Asian championships in 2024 and he is in good form this year. Takara Suda of Japan will be the favourite in this category having won gold at Muhamet Malo.
Ahmad Masoud of Iran and Wanhao Zou of China will be the other challengers for a medal. Zou has not troubled any Indian wrestler so far though.
65 kg:
Sujeet has been hailed as the successor to Sushil and Bajrang in the 65kg category and this will be an opportunity to announce himself at the senior level. He was so close to an Olympic spot in Paris and he will be itching to correct that blot in his record.
Fans can expect an outside chance of gold here- Ebrahimzadeh of Iran, who won the Zagreb ranking series, will be the toughest challenge. Umidjon Jalolov of Uzbekistan will be a dark horse.
Nothing much is known about North Korea’s Kwang Jin Kim and Japan’s KaiseiTanabe- they could spring a surprise.
70 kg:
Vishal Kaliraman, famous for going against Bajrang Punia, will be India’s participant here. I do not expect much here.
Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia, who narrowly missed an Olympic medal in Paris and Yoshinosuke Aoyagi of Japan, who won silver in last year’s Wch for non-Olympic weights, will be the favourites for gold.
74 kg:
Jaideep, like Sujeet, also narrowly missed the Paris Olympic berth and he will be our representative in arguably the most closely fought category at the national level.
He will face stiff fights from Nurkozha Kaipanov (Kaz), reigning world champion in 70 kg and Mohamed Reza Shakeri of Iran, the reigning U20 world champion in 74 kg.
86 kg:
Mukul Dahiya created quite a ripple by upstaging SagarJaglan and Sandeep Mann at the trials. He should be trying to prove that the above results were not a flash in the pan.
The heavier weights have not gone well for India in recent years and Japan’s Tatsuya Shirai and Iranian youngster, Firouzjaeiwill be gearing to continue that streak.
92 kg:
Deepak Punia has moved to 92 kg this year. He has been our saving grace in the heavier weights and hope his preparation and luck are on point. Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan, former Asian Champion and Olympian, will be Deepak’s hardest competitor.
Magomed Sharipov of Bahrain and Takashi Ishiguro of Japan will be dark horses.
Others:
With all due respect to Chandermohan (79kg), Jointy (97kg) and Dinesh (125kg), they have not achieved anything so far, to get excited about. It will be a pleasant surprise if they medal.
India in Greco-Roman:
Asia is not the most competitive continent for Greco-roman. Yet India’s Greco wrestlers are some way away from competing strongly, even at the continental level.
After today’s competition (5 categories), only Sagar in 77 kg and Sunil in 87 kg won at least one bout. Sunil, to his credit, has won bronze in 87kg. We hope it’s the start of something and not just because of luck of the draw.
Sumit in 60kg has a bronze in the U23 world championships and he is out best bet for another Greco medal.
The preview of women’s wrestling will be coming up tomorrow. We will be back with a review of men’s events at the end of the competition on march 30th.
