A New Wrestling Order Emerges at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

Six medals — two gold, two silver and two bronze — made this India’s best Asian Games wrestling campaign since Jakarta in 1962, when Indian wrestlers won 12 medals, including three gold. The number alone does not tell the story.

Sujeet Kalkal’s gold, especially at 65kg, felt like the beginning of a new era.

The weight class in which the Dadri wrestler trains carries a particular Indian history. Yogeshwar Dutt won Asian Games gold at 65kg in 2014 before Bajrang Punia retained the title in 2018. Sujeet has now stepped into that lineage. Sushil Kumar won Olympic and World Championships medals in the 66kg category, later changed to 65kg.

On his route to the title, the reigning U23 World Champion beat Japan’s Olympic champion Kotaro Kiyooka 3-3 on VPO criteria in the semifinal before recovering from 2-9 down to beat Tajikistan’s AbdulmazhiKudiev 10-9 in an astonishing fashion in the gold medal match.

And this was not an upset. Sujeet had been unbeaten through 2026, winning the Zagreb Open, Muhamet Malo Ranking Series and Asian Championships before arriving in Japan. He had also carried the memory of Paris with him. In 2024, he and Deepak Punia were stranded in Dubai because of flooding and reached Bishkek only after the weigh-in for the Asian Olympic Qualifier had begun. They were not allowed to compete.

Two years later, Sujeet was an Asian Games champion, and now he’ll be eyeing his lost Olympics dream and World Championships gold.

Another amazing performance came from Aman Sehrawat. The Paris Olympics medallist’s gold had a different texture, as it was redemption.

The Chhatrasal-based 23-year-old grappler had a difficult 2025, including failing to make weight at the World Championships and subsequently being suspended by the WFI before the ban was lifted after his apology. However, adversities are nothing new in his life. He then rebuilt himself, moving up to 61kg early in 2026, winning silver at Zagreb and the Asian Championships, before returning to 57kg and winning the Budapest Ranking Series.

In Nagoya, he beat the reigning world champion Han Chong Song 11-7, upgrading his Hangzhou bronze and, more importantly, restoring the sense that Aman belongs in the conversation for Los Angeles 2028.

Antim Panghal supplied another piece of that future. At 22, she won her second Asian Games medal, upgrading her Hangzhou bronze to silver. Her 1-9 defeat to Japan’s Moe Kiyooka in the final exposed the gap to the very best, but reaching another final after the turbulence around Paris was important in itself.

Then came the wrestlers whose medals carried their own stories. Just a week before the Asian Games trials, Deepak Punia sustained a muscle strain, which forced him to move up 11kg from his familiar 86kg category to 97kg, as the doctor suggested that the weight cut might be risky. He had won silver at the previous Asian Games, and this time he returned with bronze. The medal came after a semifinal loss to Uzbekistan’s Sherzod Poyonov, followed by a 2-1 victory over Mongolia’s Gankhuyag Ganbaatar in the bronze bout.

Sagar Jaglan did not get one. But his fifth-place finish should not be ignored. He beat defending Asian Games champion and world silver medallist Tumur-Ochir Tulga and then Olympic champion Razambek Zhamalov before losing to Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Kaipanov in the bronze medal bout. It was one of the performances that showed India’s 74kg category has a wrestler capable of beating the biggest names.

Greco-Roman, meanwhile, quietly produced perhaps the most significant development.

Nitesh Siwach became the first Indian Greco-Roman wrestler in 64 years to reach an Asian Games final, winning silver at 97kg. The last Indian finalist had come at the 1962 Games, when Greco-Roman was still new to the Asian Games programme. Veteran Sunil Kumar flexed his skills, adding bronze at 87kg, giving India two medals in a discipline that has often lived in freestyle’s shadow.

But six medals should not hide the gaps.

India had only one women’s medallist. Dipanshi, Manisha Bhanwala, Mansi Ahlawat, Nisha Dahiya and Priya Malik all left without a podium finish. Rajat Ruhal also exited early at 125kg, while Sagar’s fifth-place finish and the defeats of several Greco-Roman wrestlers showed that depth remains a concern, as it is still dependent on one or two wrestlers. However, it also shows how much the discipline is ignored in India, as most of the time only freestyle rejects come into the sport, which raises a serious supply-line problem.

There was also the uncomfortable doping issue. India’s original 18-member wrestling squad was reduced to 15 after three wrestlers were removed following doping positives, of which Mukul Dahiya could have added another medal to India’s campaign in 86kg.

The Olympics are less than two years away. Sujeet has emerged, Aman has recovered, Antim has rebuilt, Deepak has reinvented his confidence and he might move to 86kg once again next season, and Greco-Roman has shown a sign of progression. This is the right time to build domination in a few weight categories and convert one of India’s legacy sports into the country’s highest medal-winning sport at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

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