Neelam Sirohi and Kajal Dhochak ended their World Wrestling Championships 2026 campaigns in Astana, Kazakhstan, with historic silver medals on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Neelam, finished runner-up in the women’s 50kg category while Kajal, who is only 18 years old, bagged the silver in the women’s 76kg division.
Before this, Anshu Malik was the only Indian woman to have won silver at the World Wrestling Championships, having finished runner-up in the 57kg division at Oslo in 2021.
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In the gold-medal bout, Neelam came up against Japanese ace Yui Susaki, a former Olympic champion, and was beaten by fall. Susaki, the defending champion, arrived in Astana with three four titles, one in the 48kg and three in the 50kg before adding another on Wednesday.
The Japanese grappler has been undefeated on the international stage since losing to India’s Vinesh Phogat at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Neelam had opened with a 6-0 win over Belarus’ Natallia Varakina before reaching the quarterfinals when top seed Elizaveta Smirnova of Russia pulled out of their quarterfinal through injury.
The Indian wrestler then defeated Kazakhstan’s Zeinep Bayanova 7-3 in the semifinals to set up the gold medal bout.
The second silver arrived later in the day through Kajal Dhochak, who lost the women’s 76kg final to European champion Anastasiya Alpyeyeva of Ukraine. Kajal, 18, had booked her place in the title bout with a 10-7 semi-final win over Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy after recovering from a 1-7 deficit.
The two-time Under-20 world champion had earlier beaten Mongolia’s Enkh-Amaryn Davaanasan 9-2 and after opening her campaign with a win by fall over Lithuania’s Kamile Griskiene Gaucaite.
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Reaching the twin finals marked a breakthrough for Indian women’s wrestling, which until this edition had sent only one representative – Anshu Malik – to a World Championships final.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rajnita’s campaign in the women’s 65kg category came to an end in the repechage round. She went down 2-6 to Japan’s Nana Ikehata, missing out on the opportunity to progress to the bronze medal match.
Meanwhile, India’s Srishti (68kg) and Tanu Sharma (72kg) kept their medal hopes alive by qualifying for the repechage rounds of their respective weight categories.
Nishu (53kg) won her qualification bout but lost in the Round of 16 to bow out. Neha exited from the 62kg freestyle category after losing in the pre-quartersfinals.
Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers had earlier drawn blank in the tournament. However, Lalit Sehrawat scripted his own piece of history by reaching the bronze medal bout in the 55kg category before losing to Iskhar Kurbayev of Kazakhstan. He became the first Indian to contest in a Greco-Roman medal bout at the World Championships in 13 years.
