Indian wrestlers had a good opening day as Aman Sehrawat won the men’s freestyle 57kg gold medal at the Polyák Imre, Varga János & Kozma István Memorial 2026 wrestling tournament in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday.
Competing in his first international tournament since winning silver at the Asian Wrestling Championships in April, Aman, who had become India’s youngest Olympic medallist at Paris 2024, produced a commanding run to the title.
The 22-year-old 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 quarterfinals.
Aman then defeated reigning European champion Islam Bazarganov of Azerbaijan 11-0 in the semifinals and saw off Georgia’s Robert Dingashvili 13-3 by technical superiority in the final. Three of his four victories came by technical superiority.
Deepak and Vishal bag bronze medals
Deepak (men’s 61kg) and Vishal Kaliramana (men’s 65kg) claimed bronze to take India’s medal tally to three in the Budapest Ranking Series.
Deepak 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 semifinals after beating Georgia’s Ramiz Turmanidze 7-4 in the quarterfinals.
Vishal bagged the 65kg bronze medal after defeating Ossumzhan Dastanbek of Kazakhstan 8-2. He had lost the semifinal 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 as Rahul lost the 57kg quarterfinal 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 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.
