Sujeet Kalkal leads India’s 30-member squad at the World Wrestling Championships in Astana, starting Saturday. The 23-year-old hopes to extend his 23-match unbeaten run and win his first senior world title. He competes in the 65kg category on October 29. Many top wrestlers are missing, but Sujeet remains a leading contender.
Sujeet Kalkal will headline India's 30-member squad at the World Wrestling Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, where the 23-year-old will look to extend his 23-match unbeaten run and win his first senior world title.
The championships begin on Saturday with Greco-Roman wrestling before moving to women's wrestling and then men's freestyle, with Sujeet scheduled to compete in the 65kg category on October 29, with medal rounds on October 30.
India have entered 10 wrestlers each in men's freestyle, women's wrestling and Greco-Roman, with the contingent featuring several Asian Games medallists.
The Greco-Roman campaign will be led by Nitesh Siwach and Sunil Kumar. Nitesh won silver in the 97kg category at the Asian Games in Nagoya-Aichi, ending India's 64-year wait for an Asian Games silver in the discipline.
Sunil's bronze in the 87kg category made him the first Indian Greco-Roman wrestler to win two Asian Games medals.
India, however, will be without several prominent names. Olympic bronze medallist Aman Sehrawat, who won Asian Games gold, has skipped the Worlds to focus on his fitness. Two-time World Championships bronze medallist Antim Panghal and Asian Games bronze medallist Deepak Punia will also miss the competition.
Much of India's attention will eventually turn to Sujeet, whose recent form has made him one of the leading contenders in a fiercely competitive 65kg field. He last lost to Iran's Rahman Amouzad 5-6 in the quarterfinals of last year's World Championships in Zagreb. Amouzad went on to win the title, but Sujeet accounted for five of the six points the Iranian conceded throughout the tournament.
Sujeet has since won 23 consecutive matches, including 18 this year. His titles include the Muhamet Malo tournament in Tirana, the Zagreb Open, the Asian Championships and the U23 World Championships. He capped that run at the Asian Games earlier this month, beating reigning Olympic champion Kotaro Kiyooka of Japan in the semifinals before recovering from a 9-2 deficit to defeat Tajikistan's Abdulmazhid Kudiev 10-9 in the final.
The challenge in Astana will be to sustain that intensity through a demanding draw. Amouzad will be looking to defend his title, while former world champion Abasgadzhi Magomedov of Russia, Japan's 2025 Asian champion Kaisei Tanabe, Bulgaria's Shamil Mamedov and American U20 world champion Bowen Bassett are among the other contenders.
For Sujeet, the championships offer a chance to turn an exceptional run into a senior world title, and settle the unfinished business from his narrow defeat to Amouzad last year.