India’s Aman Sehrawat won the men’s freestyle 57kg gold medal on the opening day of the Polyák Imre, Varga János & Kozma István Memorial 2026 wrestling tournament in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday.
Deepak (men’s 61kg) and Vishal Kaliramana (men’s 65kg) claimed bronze to take India’s medal tally to three on the opening day of the Budapest Ranking Series.
Competing in his first international tournament since winning silver at the Asian Wrestling Championships in April, Aman Sehrawat, who became India’s youngest Olympic medallist at Paris 2024, produced a commanding run to the title.
The 22-year-old Indian wrestler opened his campaign with a 10-0 technical superiority victory over Georgia’s Nikoloz Botchorishvili before defeating Olympian Meirambek Kartbay of Kazakhstan 10-3 in the quarter-finals.
Aman then beat reigning European champion Islam Bazarganov of Azerbaijan 11-0 in the semi-finals and defeated Georgia’s Robert Dingashvili 13-3 by technical superiority in the final. Three of his four victories came by technical superiority.
Deepak, meanwhile, staged one of the comebacks of the day to clinch bronze in the men’s freestyle 61kg category.
Trailing 8-0 against Nuraddin Novruzov of Azerbaijan in the bronze medal bout, Deepak fought back to register a dramatic 9-8 victory.
Earlier, the Indian wrestler lost to Kazakhstan’s Assyl Aitakyn 2-1 in the semi-finals after beating Georgia’s Ramiz Turmanidze 7-4 in the quarter-finals.
Vishal Kaliramana clinched the 65kg bronze medal after defeating Ossumzhan Dastanbek of Kazakhstan 8-2. He had lost the semi-final on criteria to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ahmad Ebrahimzadeh.
India missed out on adding more medals to their tally in the other men’s freestyle events on Wednesday.
Rahul lost the 57kg quarter-final while Asian champion Abhimanyou Mandwal bowed out in the qualification round of the men’s freestyle 70kg competition.
Asian Games-bound wrestlers Sagar Jaglan (74kg) and Mukul Dahiya (86kg), along with Amit (86kg), failed to finish on the podium in their respective weight categories.
India’s campaign will continue on Thursday with men’s freestyle competition in the 79kg, 92kg, 97kg and 125kg categories as well as women’s wrestling in the 50kg and 55kg divisions. Olympian Deepak Punia (97kg) will headline the Indian challenge.
The Polyák Imre, Varga János & Kozma István Memorial 2026 is the fourth and final United World Wrestling (UWW) Ranking Series event of the season.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/budapest-ranking-series-2026-wrestling-day-1-results-india
