Tirana. 18-year-old Chirag Chikara won gold in the men’s freestyle 57 kg category on the final day of the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Tirana, Albania, India’s only gold medal in this tournament. Chirag defeated Abdymalik Karachov of Kyrgyzstan by a margin of 4-3 in a thrilling final match. In this way, this young wrestler is only the second wrestler after Paris Olympics bronze medalist Aman Sehrawat, who has won a gold medal in the Under-23 Championship. After defeating Japan’s Gatsuko Ozawa 6–1 in the first round, she dominated her quarterfinal encounter with a 12–2 win over Russia’s Iunas Ivabtirov. In the semi-finals, Chirag performed brilliantly against Alan Oralbek of Kazakhstan and secured his place in the final where he defeated Karachov. Chirag is following in the footsteps of Aman Sehrawat, who won India’s first gold medal in under-23 wrestling in the 57 kg category last year. While Ritika Hooda won the gold medal in the women’s 76 kg category. In men’s freestyle, Sujit Kalkal won the bronze medal in the 70 kg category with a 13-4 win over Mustafo Akhmedov of Tajikistan.
Vicky Chahar won the bronze medal in the 97 kg category by defeating former U-20 World Championship silver medalist Ivan Primachenko of Ukraine 7-2. Abhishek’s bronze medal in the 61kg category kicked off India’s medal count on Saturday, leaving a strong position for the men’s freestyle wrestling contingent. India then earned four medals and finished fourth in its category behind Iran, Japan, Azerbaijan. India’s women’s freestyle team finished fifth, with Anjali winning a silver medal in the 59 kg category, with three other players from her team also winning bronze medals. In the Greco-Roman category, Vishwajit Ramchandra More was India’s lone medal winner, winning a bronze medal in the 55 kg category. Despite their best efforts, the Greco-Roman team finished 12th overall. India won a total of 9 medals in the championship (which includes- 1 gold, 1 silver and 7 bronze).