By Vipul Kashyap
Aichi-Nagoya [Japan], October 2 (ANI): Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Sanjay Singh said that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA)-appointed ad-hoc committee to look after the functioning of the federation amid protests and investigation against former president Brij Bhushan Singh for alleged sexual harassment caused India to miss out on a gold medal at the Asian Games, with the young wrestler Sujeet Kalkal ending the drought on Friday with a gold medal in men’s 65 kg freestyle wrestling.
Sujeet Kalkal secured a historic gold medal at the ongoing Asian Games 2026, defeating Tajikistan’s Abdulmazhid Kudiev in the men’s freestyle 65kg final at Aichi-Nagoya on Friday. Down and out at 2-9 with a minute and 40 seconds to go, Sujeet produced takedowns after takedowns, changing tides in his favour and sealing the gold medal with eleven seconds left. This is India’s first Asiad gold in wrestling since gold medals by Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat at the Jakarta-Palembang 2018 edition, as per ESPN.
This is India’s 75rd medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, with 15 golds, 25 silver medals and 35 bronze medals.
Speaking about the medal win and India’s long wait for an Asian Games gold, Sanjay said, “What is being said about winning gold after 8 years—if trials were conducted and wrestlers were sent properly last time (during the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou), this gold would have been ours back then too. There would not have been a 4-year gap. For that, the ad-hoc committee is largely responsible for losing our country’s medal. As for wrestling details, you can ask our chief coach, Vinod ji.”
As the country’s top wrestlers such as Bajrang Punia, Sakshee Malik and Vinesh Phogat led the protests against Brij Bhushan in early 2023, IOA announced the formation of an ad-hoc committee in April 2023 to look after the day-to-day functioning of the federation. United World Wrestling (UWW) imposed a ban on WFI in August 2023 for not conducting elections within a stipulated period of time. Fresh elections were held in late December 2023, elections were held and Sanjay Singh was elected as the new president of WFI. However, the wrestlers protested against his election, saying he was an aide of ex-president Brij Bhushan. Days after the elections, the Ministry suspended the federation again, a decision that came after Sanjay had announced the hosting of the U-15 and U-20 nationals at Nandini Nagar in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh by the end of the year. An ad-hoc committee of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was put in place once again to handle the day-to-day affairs of the federation. After the ban on WFI was lifted by UWW in February 2024, the ad-hoc committee was dissolved in March 2024.
During these days of turmoil, India had an underwhelming Asian Games campaign, with just a silver and five bronze medals. In the 65 kg category, Bajrang Punia in men’s 65 kg was exempted from trials and granted a direct entry to the Asian Games in 2023, where he failed to get a medal. Sujeet was one of the wrestlers who moved to the Delhi High Court for the exemption given to Bajrang.
Fresh elections were held in late December 2023, elections were held and Sanjay Singh was elected as the new president of WFI. However, the wrestlers protested against his election, saying he was an aide of ex-president Brij Bhushan. Days after the elections, the Ministry suspended the federation again, a decision that came after Sanjay had announced the hosting of the U-15 and U-20 nationals at Nandini Nagar in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh by the end of the year. An ad-hoc committee of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was put in place once again to handle the day-to-day affairs of the federation. After the ban on WFI was lifted by UWW in February 2024, the ad-hoc committee was dissolved in March 2024.
Indian wrestling chief coach Vinod also agreed, saying, “In the 2023 Asian Games, Iran beat us by a big margin when our wrestler went without trials. Trials should have been held. We suffered an 8-year gap because of that,” he said.
Speaking on his pupil’s performance, he termed it a “dramatic comeback”.
“Look, the whole country saw how he turned the bout around in the last 27 seconds. He created history. Nobody expected such a dramatic comeback,” he said.
Speaking about his clash against Japan’s Kiyooka, Vinod said that the refereeing was highly in favour of the Japanese wrestler.
“The referees were completely favouring the Japanese wrestler; what was supposed to be 4 points for us, they only gave 1 point. We were in doubt, watching the video replay repeatedly.”
Sujeet also produced one of India’s most notable results of the day prior to the title clash, defeating Japan’s Kiyooka 3-3 on criteria in the men’s freestyle 65kg semifinal.
Kiyooka, the reigning Olympic champion, led 2-0 after the first period, but Sujeet fought back strongly in the second to score three points. With the bout level at 3-3, the Indian was awarded the victory for scoring the final point and advanced to the gold medal bout.
Sujeet had earlier defeated Afghanistan’s Sayed Omar Zazai in the round of 16 and Iran’s Abbas Ebrahimzadehsavadkouhi in the quarterfinal. (ANI)
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