India capped off a memorable campaign at the 9th U23 World Wrestling Championships with a total of nine medals one gold, two silver, and six bronze highlighting both the growing strength of Indian women’s wrestling and the emergence of a new star in men’s freestyle.
The championship, held in Novi Sad, Serbia from October 20 to 27, brought together over 700 wrestlers from around the world. India fielded a 29-member contingent across men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle, and Greco-Roman categories marking one of its largest ever U23 delegations. While the men’s freestyle camp found a new hero in Sujeet Kalkal, the women’s team made history by winning India’s first-ever World Team Title at the U23 level, underlining a shift in India’s wrestling power balance.
Sujeet Kalkal’s Golden Statement in 65kg
At just 21, Sujeet Kalkal has become the new face of Indian freestyle wrestling. The Haryana-born grappler, coached by his father Dayanand Kalkal, stormed through the 65kg bracket to win India’s only gold medal of the tournament defeating Uzbekistan’s Umidjon Jalolov, a senior world bronze medallist, 10-0 by technical superiority in the final.
What made Sujeet’s triumph particularly special was its context. Just a year ago, he had won bronze in the 70kg category; this year, he dropped to 65kg the same division once dominated by Bajrang Punia, India’s Olympic and World Championship medallist. His gold is a symbolic bridge between generations from Bajrang’s legacy to India’s next Olympic hopeful.
Technically, Sujeet’s style represents a modern evolution in Indian wrestling. He relies less on endurance-based “pehelwan” traditions and more on explosive leg attacks, technical precision, and positional dominance. His controlled aggression, clinical timing, and ability to finish quickly reflect a transition toward international wrestling standards a model India must replicate across its men’s program.
But while Sujeet soared, the rest of India’s men’s freestyle contingent faltered. Out of ten wrestlers, six exited in the qualification or first round, and none apart from Sujeet reached the semifinals. Names like Sumit Malik (57kg) and Vicky (97kg), both former U20 standouts, couldn’t convert junior-level promise into U23 results. Vicky’s 13-15 loss after leading his bout highlighted tactical lapses and late-match fatigue common issues in India’s depth pool. This uneven performance underscores a pressing concern: India’s men’s freestyle pipeline remains heavily reliant on individual brilliance rather than system-wide consistency.
Women’s Freestyle: Consistency Triumphs Over Gold
If Sujeet provided the highlight, the women’s team delivered the headline. With seven medals (two silver and five bronze), India claimed the World Team Title in women’s wrestling finishing ahead of Japan and the United States.
What made the victory remarkable was how it was achieved. India did not win a single gold but accumulated points across weight classes through consistent podium finishes a testament to the depth and balance of the women’s program. Hansika Lamba (53kg) and Sarika (59kg) led the charge, both reaching their respective finals before losing closely to Japanese opponents. Hansika, the daughter of a milkman from Haryana, dominated her early bouts with technical clarity and composure but fell 0–4 in the final. Sarika’s 1–3 loss was similarly narrow, exposing a small but critical tactical gap against Japan’s precision-driven wrestling.
Behind them, five women Neha Sharma (57kg), Pulkit Kandola (65kg), Nishu Dahiya (55kg), Srishti (68kg), and Priya Malik (76kg) each claimed bronze. Most notably, Neha and Pulkit showed mental fortitude, bouncing back through repechage after early defeats.
Repechage success in wrestling requires psychological recovery, composure, and endurance all signs of India’s growing mental conditioning and match fitness. The women’s coaching setup, which emphasized sustained physical conditioning and bracket navigation, deserves credit for preparing athletes for multi-bout tournaments.
India’s victory in the team standings 121 points to Japan’s 117 reflected a collective strategy built on consistency rather than dominance. In a field where Japan produced more individual golds, India won by ensuring representation on nearly every podium. This outcome marks a strategic breakthrough for the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). It proves that sustained depth across all 10 weight categories can outweigh reliance on a few stars — a principle that could redefine India’s future at both U23 and senior levels.
While freestyle continued to deliver, India’s Greco-Roman (GR) struggles persisted. The lone bright spot came from Vishvajit Ramchandra More (55kg), who clinched a bronze medal repeating his result from 2024.
A soldier with the Maratha Light Infantry, Vishvajit’s medal was a personal triumph more than a systemic one. The rest of the GR contingent nine wrestlers exited in the qualification or first round, exposing India’s long-standing technical and structural deficiencies in this style. Unlike freestyle, Greco-Roman forbids leg attacks, relying on upper-body throws and grips. India’s grassroots training derived from traditional kushti aligns far more naturally with freestyle’s open mechanics. As a result, many Greco-Roman wrestlers in India are reassigned freestyle athletes lacking specialized training, making the gap with world powers like Iran and Hungary too vast to bridge.
Experts argue that until India establishes dedicated Greco-Roman academies and foreign coaching support, results will continue to stagnate. More’s success, while commendable, cannot mask the structural void.
Numerically, India’s nine-medal tally matched its 2024 total from Tirana but the quality improved, with more athletes reaching finals and a first-ever team title.
| Category | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| Men’s Freestyle | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Women’s Freestyle | 0 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| Greco-Roman | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 1 | 2 | 6 | 9 |
India’s strength lies clearly in its women’s program a model of structured growth, consistency, and mental resilience. The men’s freestyle division, though producing an elite champion in Sujeet, needs a broader technical reform, while Greco-Roman demands a complete rebuild.
As the wrestling world turns its eyes toward Los Angeles 2028, the lessons from Novi Sad are clear. India now has the foundations of a sustainable medal pipeline but only if it converts potential into senior-level performance through modern technique, targeted conditioning, and systemic coaching upgrades.
