List of Indian wrestlers to compete at World Wrestling Championships 2023 - full list
Antim Panghal and Aman Sehrawat were among the 30 who made the cut through trials. The grapplers, however, will compete under a neutral flag at Belgrade.
Wrestling
The two-day trials to select Indian wrestlers for the World Wrestling Championships 2023 concluded in Patiala on Saturday. The opening day was reserved for Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle categories while the men’s freestyle trials were conducted on Saturday.
The World Wrestling Championships 2023 is scheduled in Belgrade, Serbia, from September 16 to 24. The meet will be the first wrestling qualifiers for next year’s Paris 2024 Olympics.
Indian wrestlers, however, won’t be able to compete under the national flag at Belgrade since the United World Wrestling (UWW), the global governing body for the sport, has provisionally suspended the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for not conducting elections on time. The suspension came into effect on Thursday.
On Friday, a total of 20 wrestlers, 10 each in Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle, were shortlisted.
Antim Panghal, who became the first Indian woman to become a two-time U-20 world champion in Amman earlier this month, won the 53kg trials to punch her ticket to Belgrade. The category also featured Manju, Pooja Jat and Rajni.
The 19-year-old Antim Panghal had won the Asian Games trial last month as well but was kept as a standby for Vinesh Phogat in the women’s 53kg category. Vinesh was granted direct entry to the team despite missing the trials.
However, in what was a double boost for the youngster on Friday, the Indian sports ministry included Antim Panghal’s name in the list of Asian Games-bound Indian athletes as Vinesh is unavailable after suffering a knee injury.
Sarita Mor, a former world championships bronze medallist, sealed the women’s 57kg berth. Sarita had missed out on an Asian Games spot after suffering a shock defeat to U23 World Championship bronze medallist Mansi Ahlawat at the continental trials.
Another wrestler who managed to make amends after missing out on an Asian Games spot was Divya Kakran, who sealed the 76kg berth. En route, Kakran beat Kiran, who was responsible for her ouster from the Asian Games trials.
Antim Kundu, who won the 65kg U20 World Championships silver medal in Amman, also confirmed her participation in Belgrade.
On Saturday, the wrestlers for the 10 men’s freestyle categories were shortlisted. Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia and former world championships silver medallist Deepak Punia had earlier excused themselves from Saturday’s trials.
Aman Sehrawat, a 2022 U23 world champion and the reigning Asian champion, ensured his place in the squad by winning the 57kg trials. Aman is also part of the Indian wrestling contingent for the Asian Games.
In Bajrang Punia’s absence, the 65kg category went to Anuj Kumar, who beat Vishal in the final. Sumit Malik ensured he’ll be competing in the 125kg division both in Belgrade and Hangzhou while Naveen Malik edged out Sagar in the 74kg trials.
Sahil and Abhimanyu, bronze medal winners at the U23 world championships in June, also punched their tickets to Belgrade.
Indian wrestlers at World Wrestling Championships 2023 - full list
Greco-Roman
- Ajay - 55kg
- Manish - 60kg
- Vikram - 63kg
- Vinayak - 67kg
- Ankit Gulia - 72kg
- Gurpreet Singh - 77kg
- Sajan - 82kg
- Manoj Kumar - 87kg
- Shailesh - 97kg
- Mehar Singh - 130kg
Women’s freestyle
- Neelam Sirohi - 50kg
- Antim Panghal - 53kg
- Neha - 55kg
- Sarita Mor - 57kg
- Anjali - 59kg
- Manisha Bhanwala - 62kg
- Antim Kundu - 65kg
- Priyanka - 68kg
- Jyoti Berwal - 72kg
- Divya Kakran - 76kg
Men’s freestyle
- Aman Sherawat - 57kg
- Akash Dahiya - 61kg
- Anuj Kumar - 65kg
- Abhimanyu - 70kg
- Naveen Malik - 74kg
- Sachin More - 79kg
- Sandeep Mann - 86kg
- Pruthviraj Patil - 92kg
- Sahil - 97kg
- Sumit Malik - 125kg