Sujeet Kalkal won the gold medal in the 65kg men’s freestyle category at the Polyak Imre & Varga Janos Memorial 2025 wrestling tournament in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday.
The Indian wrestler produced a clinical performance in the final to beat four-time European medallist Ali Rahimzade of Azerbaijan 5-1.
This was the first gold medal won by an Indian wrestler in any of the Ranking Series events this year. The country’s grapplers drew blanks in Amman and Mongolia earlier.
Sujeet conceded only an activity point in the first period before raising the tempo in the second to secure two takedowns and another activity point en route to a commanding victory in the medal bout.
Sujeet’s journey to the final was just as impressive as he sealed a dominant 11-0 win over Paris 2024 Olympics bronze medallist Islam Dudaev of Albania in the round of 16.
He then went on to beat European silver medallist Khamzat Arsamerzouev of France in the quarter-finals before securing a 6-1 win over Vazgen Tevanyan of Armenia in the semis.
India won another medal in the men’s 57kg category with Rahul bagging a bronze after defeating Germany’s Niklas Stechele 4-0.
He beat Kim Sung-gwon of the Republic of Korea 5-3 in the quarter-finals before narrowly losing 7-6 to USA’s Luke Joseph Lilledahl in the semi-finals.
India’s Udit and Vicky lost in the repechage rounds of the 61kg and 97kg divisions, respectively, on Thursday.
The Polyak Imre & Varga Janos Memorial in Budapest is the fourth and final wrestling ranking series of the year.
The ranking points on offer will help wrestlers earn better seeding for the World Wrestling Championships, which will be held in Zagreb, Croatia in September.
India have fielded wrestlers across men’s and women’s freestyle, as well as the Greco-Roman, in the ongoing Budapest meet, which concludes on July 20.