Sujeet Kalkal opened India’s medal count at the Muhamet Malo 2026 wrestling tournament in Tirana, Albania, with a gold in the men’s 65kg freestyle category on Wednesday.
It was his second straight gold medal in the 2026 UWW Ranking Series, following his Zagreb Open victory in Croatia earlier this month.
On Wednesday, Sujeet Kalkal, a U23 world champion, topped the podium with four straight wins on technical superiority.
He beat Azerbaijan’s Rashid Babazade 10-0 in the final after an 11-0 win over USA’s two-time Pan American champion Joseph McKenna in the semis.
It was Sujeet’s second win over the American in three weeks. The two wrestlers met in the semi-finals of the Zagreb Open, which Sujeet won with the same scoreline.
The 23-year-old Indian wrestler, also an age-group Asian champion, beat Nika Zakashvili of Georgia 10-0 in the quarter-finals after starting his campaign with a 16-4 victory over Endrio Avdyli of Albania.
Overall, this was Sujeet’s fourth gold medal in the UWW circuit, having clinched the top spot at the 2022 Zouhaier Sghaier and the 2025 Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial.
India’s Mohit Kumar, competing in the same category, could not make it past the qualifying round.
In the 57kg division, Ankush and Atish Todkar battled through repechage to reach the bronze medal bouts but faltered in their respective matches.
Sumit (57kg), Rahul (61kg), Siddharth (70kg), Parvinder (74kg) and Aryan (86kg) failed to reach the medal rounds in their respective weight divisions.
India sent a 48-member wrestling team for the Muhamet Malo 2026, with 16 each entered across the men’s freestyle, the women’s divisions and the Greco-Roman category.
Olympic medallist Aman Sehrawat and two-time World Wrestling Championships bronze medallist Antim Panghal are not part of the Indian contingent.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/muhamet-malo-2026-wrestling-india-day-1-results
