India’s Tanu Sharma won a bronze medal in the women’s 72kg category at the World Wrestling Championships 2026 on Thursday, beating reigning Pan American champion Precious Bell 9-5 in her medal bout.
The 20-year-old Indian wrestler had reached the bronze medal contest by edging Tunisia’s Zainab Sghaier 5-4 in repechage earlier in the day. On Wednesday, Tanu had lost to Poland’s Wiktoria Choluj 12-2 in the pre-quarters to enter repechage.
A silver medallist at the U20 world championships from earlier this year, this was Tanu’s debut international meet on the senior stage.
Meanwhile, Srishti, who also entered repechage on Wednesday, bowed out after a loss to USA’s Kennedy Blades in the women’s 68kg freestyle category.
Manisha Bhanwala made it to the women’s 59kg final after stringing together a run of three wins. The former Asian champion in the 62kg category will face reigning Pan American champion Abigail Nette of the USA for the title on Friday.
In the women’s 55kg, Ahilya Shinde beat Cuba’s Yaynelis Sanz Verdecia 8-1 but let a 3-0 lead slip to lose 6-9 to Turkiye’s Tuba Demir in the quarter-finals to bow out.
In the men’s draw which began on Thursday, Asian Games gold medallist Sujeet Kalkal failed to make the podium as his run and a 24-match-long win streak spanning a year was snapped in the 65kg freestyle quarter-finals.
Sujeet lost 3-3 on criteria to Tajikistan’s Abdulmazhid Kudiev in a heartbreaking fashion. The Indian grappler led 3-1 but Kudiev turned the tables in the final 30 seconds.
It seemed like Sujeet had taken a 5-2 lead in the final stages but a challenge from the Tajikistan side saw the decision reversed and the score adjusted to 3-3.
Unable to land a scoring move in the final seconds, Sujeet lost on criteria since Kudiev had scored last. It was the Indian wrestler’s first defeat since the repechage round loss at the 2025 World Championships in Zagreb.
Interestingly, it was Kudiev who was on the receiving end of a similar turnaround in the final of the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya earlier this month, where the Indian had overturned a 9-2 deficit to steal a late win and the gold.
With Kudiev losing to USA’s Bo Bassett, the U20 world champion, in the semis, Sujeet’s hopes of a repechage appearance were also dashed.
Sujeet had reached the last eight by beating Switzerland’s Nino Leutert 12-1 by technical superiority and then Belarus’ Islam Guseinov 4-0.
In the men’s 97kg, India’s Vicky lost to Japan’s Arash Yoshida in the quarter-finals but will get a second bite at a medal through repechage.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/world-wrestling-championships-2026-day-tanu-sharma-medal-report
