Sujeet and Abhimanyu won gold medals at the Asian Wrestling Championship

India secured its first gold medals at the Asian Wrestling Championship 2026 held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, when Sujeet Kalkal and Abhimanyu Mandwal won the titles in the men’s freestyle 65kg and 70kg categories respectively.

India finished its campaign at the Asian Wrestling Championship with a total of 17 medals; on the final day in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, India won two silver and one bronze medal.

With this, India ended its campaign with two gold, seven silver, and eight bronze medals. The men’s freestyle team contributed seven medals, Greco-Roman wrestlers secured five medals, and the women’s team added five more medals to the total tally.

Asian Wrestling Championship 2026: Achievements of Sujeet and Abhimanyu

Sujeet Kalkal continued his excellent form at the international level. He registered a dominant victory by defeating Uzbekistan’s Umidjon Jalolov 8-1 in a rematch of last year’s U23 World Championship final.

This was Sujeet Kalkal’s third consecutive gold medal this year. The Indian wrestler had also won gold medals at the Muhammad Malo and Zagreb Open, both part of the UWW Ranking Series.

In the 70kg final, Abhimanyu Mandwal caused a major upset by defeating Mongolia’s Olympian and World Championship silver medalist Tömör-Ochiryn Tulga 5-3.

On the final day, Olympic medalist Aman Sehrawat won a silver medal in the men’s 61 kg freestyle category after losing 13-10 to South Korea’s Kwang Myong Kim. Mukul Dahiya also won a silver medal in the men’s category.

Asian Wrestling Championship 2026: Indian medal winners

Gold - Sujeet Kalkal (men’s 65kg), Abhimanyu Mandwal (men’s 70kg)

Silver - Lalit Sehrawat (Greco-Roman 55kg), Nitesh Siwach (Greco-Roman 97kg), Aman Sehrawat (men’s 61kg), Mukul Dahiya (men’s 86kg), Meenakshi Goyat (women’s 53kg), and Sandeep Mann (men’s 79kg)

Bronze:

Sunil Kumar (Greco-Roman 87kg), Prince (Greco-Roman 82kg), Sachin Sehrawat (Greco-Roman 67kg), Hansika Lamba (women’s 55kg), Neha (women’s 59kg), Monika (women’s 65kg), Harshita (women’s 72kg), Ankush (men’s 57kg), Dinesh (men’s 125kg)

Asian Wrestling Championship 2026

The 2026 Asian Wrestling Championship is the 22nd edition of the continental wrestling championships and was held from 6 to 12 April in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

The 2025 Asian Wrestling Championship was held from 25 to 30 March 2025 in Amman, Jordan. India finished second in the overall medal tally after Iran, winning 17 medals, including one gold medal by Manisha Bhanwala in the women’s 62kg category.

About Kyrgyzstan

Its official name is the Kyrgyz Republic, formerly known as Kirghizia, a landlocked country located in the eastern part of Central Asia. It lies between the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges.

It is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and China to the east and southeast. The capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan is Bishkek, located near the northern border with Kazakhstan.

In 1876, Kyrgyzstan became part of the Russian Empire, and in 1936, the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic was formed as a constituent republic of the Soviet Union.

On 31 August 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared independence from the USSR and established a democratic government. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it gained sovereignty as a nation-state.