U-23 World Wrestling Championships: India’s medal tally up to seven as Hansika, Sarika clinch silver

India will have to wait for its first gold medal as Hansika Lamba and Sarika Malik signed off with silver at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Serbia on Saturday.

Hansika lost the 53kg title clash 0-4 to Japan’s Haruna Morikawa. She hardly made a move in the first period, losing the first points on Morikawa’s take down and was then put on clock for passivity.

Trailing 0-3, she had no choice but to attack but that never happened as the Japanese held her in a strong head lock and then consolidated her lead with a push-out point.

Last year’s Asian U-20 silver medallist Sarika was up against Ruka Natami, the 2024 U-23 World silver medallist. She scored the first point on Natami’s passivity as the first period remained action less.

Sarika tried to push out her rival, using immense power but the Japanese played smart and effected a two-pointer on the edge of the circle to take 2-1 lead. She kept her lead to claim the yellow metal.

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Nishu (55kg), Neha Sharma (57kg), Pulkit (65kg), Srishti (68kg) and Priya Malik (76kg) had won bronze medals earlier in the tournament.

Savita (62kg), Hanny Kumari (50kg), Diksha Malik (72kg) were knocked out of the tournament earlier.

India thus ended the women’s competition with an impressive seven-medal haul.

In the men’s freestyle event, Pravinder (74kg) lost his bronze play-off 2-8 to Japan’s Yoshinosuke Aoyagi.

Sumit Malik (57kg), Naveen Kumar (70kg), Chander Mohan (79kg) were eliminated earlier during the day while Sachin (92kg) had bowed out on Friday.

Sujeet Kalkal, competing in 65kg weight class, will be India’s biggest gold medal hope in the next two days.

India did not field any athlete in the 125kg weight class since the eligible candidates did not join the national camp and were thus not allowed to compete in trials.

Published on Oct 25, 2025