Asian Wrestling Championships 2026: Sujeet, Abhimanyou secure maiden titles; Aman, Mukul confirm medals
World Under-23 champion Sujeet Kalkal (65kg) and Abhimanyou Mandwal (70kg) posted contrasting wins to secure maiden titles, while Olympics bronze medallist Aman Sehrawat (61kg) and Mukul Dahiya (86kg) reached their respective finals to confirm two more medals at the Asian wrestling championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Saturday.
Indian freestyle wrestlers bagged four medals on the penultimate day.
Sujeet gave a clinical performance to record a convincing 8-1 victory over 2025 World Wrestling Championships bronze medallist Umidjon Jalolov. Against the highly defensive Uzbek, Sujeet, who led 2-0 at the break, executed three take-downs in the second period to assert his supremacy.
Abhimanyou, an Asian bronze medallist in 2024, erased a two-point deficit to shock double Worlds medallist Mongol Tomor-Ochiryn Tulga 5-3 in the 70kg final.
Sandeep Singh Mann lost 1-2 to Japan’s Keyvan Gharehdaghi in the 79kg summit clash to take silver.
Ankush (57kg) beat Japan’s Fuga Sasaki 8-2 to win bronze.
Meanwhile, Aman Sehrawat, who jumped from 57kg to 61kg, defeated Korea’s Kim Changsu 11-0 and Iran’s Ahmad Masoud 11-9 on his way to the final.
Mukul got past Uzbekistan’s Bobur Islomov 2-0, Bahrain’s Khidir Saipudinov 9-0 and Kazakhstan’s Bolat Sakayev 12-6 to reach the summit clash.
Published on Apr 11, 2026