India’s youngest Olympic medallist Safe Sehrawat won the men’s freestyle 57kg gold medal at the Asian Games 2026while Antim Panghal (women’s 53kg) took silver and Deepak Punia (men’s 97kg) bagged bronze in Nagoya on Saturday.
A gold, silver and a bronze on the final day took India’s wrestling tally at Aichi-Nagoya to six medals – two gold, two silver and two bronze.
It marked India’s best Asian Games wrestling campaign since Jakarta 1962, when the country recorded their best-ever haul of 12 medals – three gold, six silver and three bronze.
India won two gold medals at Bangkok 1978 and Jakarta 2018 but finished with three medals at both editions.
Aman Sehrawat defeated the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Han Chong Song, the reigning world champion, 11-7 in an action-packed gold medal bout at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Center. Han won both the 57kg World Championships and Asian Championships titles in 2025.
Aman, a Paris 2024 bronze medallist, built a 6-1 advantage before Han scored six unanswered points to move 7-6 ahead.
The Indian wrestler responded with a four-point move to regain the lead at 10-7. An unsuccessful challenge from Han’s corner handed the Indian another point before he closed out the contest.
The title was India’s second wrestling gold at Aichi-Nagoya after Sujeet Kalkal won the men’s freestyle 65kg event on Friday.
Aman opened his campaign with a 20-9 technical superiority victory over Japan’s Yamato Ogawa before beating Kazakhstan’s Nurdanat Aitanov 12-1 in the quarter-finals.
He then produced another comeback against Tajikistan’s Aiaal Belolyubskii in the semi-finals. Trailing 6-2 after the opening period, Aman stormed back to win 14-8 and book his place in the final.
Meanwhile, Antim Panghal settled for silver after losing 9-1 to Japan’s Moe Kiyooka, the 2024 world champion in the 55kg category, in the women’s 53kg final.
Kiyooka led 2-0 after the opening period and kept Antim at bay for much of the contest. The Indian reduced the deficit late in the second period but the Japanese wrestler responded immediately and pulled away in the closing stages.
The silver was Antim Panghal’s second Asian Games medal following her bronze at Hangzhou 2023.
Antim began Saturday with a 9-0 win over Kazakhstan’s Shugyla Omirbek before beating Uzbekistan’s Sakibjamal Esbosynova by fall in the quarter-finals.
She then recovered from an early deficit to beat the People’s Republic of China’s Zhang Jin, the reigning Asian champion, 6-1 in the semi-finals.
Earlier, Deepak Punia added to India’s medal haul with a 2-1 victory over Mongolia’s Gankhuyag Ganbaatar in the men’s freestyle 97kg bronze medal bout.
It was Deepak’s second successive Asian Games medal following his silver in Hangzhou.
The Indian began with a 12-2 technical superiority win over China’s Junpeng Zhou and received a quarter-final walkover against Hong Kong China’s Wui Fung Vincent Li. He missed the final after a narrow 9-8 loss to Uzbekistan’s Sherzod Poyonov.
Sagar Jaglan missed out on the men’s 74kg bronze after losing by fall to Kazakhstan’s Nurkozha Kaipanov, the 2024 world champion.
Manisha Bhanwala, meanwhile, beat the Republic of Korea’s Youngjin Kwon by fall before losing 3-0 to Japan’s Akari Fujinami, an Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion, in the women’s 57kg quarter-finals. Fujinami subsequently failed to reach the final, ending Manisha’s repechage hopes.
India’s medal haul at Aichi-Nagoya also included Nitesh Siwach’s Greco-Roman 97kg silver and Sunil Kumar’s Greco-Roman 87kg bronze.
Source: www.olympics.com
