TIRANA (Albania), Feb 26: U23 world champion Sujeet Kalkal clinched the gold medal in the men’s 65kg freestyle category at the Muhamet Malo 2026 wrestling tournament. He topped the podium with four straight wins on technical superiority. The 23-year-old Indian dominated Azerbaijan’s Rashid Babazade 10-0 in the final. He had a convincing 11-0 win over USA’s two-time Pan American champion Joseph McKenna in the semifinal after beating Nika Zakashvili of Georgia 10-0 in the quarter-finals and starting his campaign with a 16-4 victory over Endrio Avdyli of Albania.
This is his second straight gold medal in the 2026 UWW Ranking Series, following his Zagreb Open victory in Croatia earlier this month.
Sujeet warmed up with a 16-4 victory over Endrio Avdyli, who tossed the Indian for a four at the start of the bout. Nika Zakashvili (Georgia)) fell next, 10-0, before Sujeet defeated Joseph McKenna (USA), 11-0, the same scoreline as the one in the semifinals of the Zagreb Open.
Rashid, who pulled off an incredible buzzer-beating four-pointer in the semifinals against Vitali Arujau (USA) to win 16-13, failed to put up a fight in the final. Sujeet laced him to win 10-0 to capture a second straight Ranking Series gold medal.
Overall, this was Sujeet’s fourth gold medal in the UWW circuit, having clinched the top spot at the 2022 Zouhaier Sghaier and the 2025 Polyak Imre & Varga Janos Memorial.India’s Mohit Kumar, competing in the same category, could not make it past the qualifying round.
In the 57kg division, Ankush and Atish Todkar battled through repechage to reach the bronze medal bouts but faltered in their respective matches. Meanwhile, Sumit (57kg), Rahul (61kg), Siddharth (70kg), Parvinder (74kg) and Aryan (86kg) failed to reach the medal rounds in their respective weight divisions.India sent a 48-member wrestling team for the Muhamet Malo 2026, with 16 each entered across the men’s freestyle, the women’s divisions and the Greco-Roman category. (IANS)
