UWW Ranking Series 2026: Sujeet Kalkal wins gold in Albania

The 23-year-old U23 world champion, Sujeet Kalkal, grabs the gold at the Muhamet Malo 2026 wrestling tournament in the men’s 65kg freestyle category with four straight victories on technical superiority.

Second straight Ranking Series gold

Kalkal looked unstoppable throughout the competition. In fact, he outclassed Azerbaijan’s Rashid Babazade with a commanding 10-0 win in the final, sealing his second consecutive gold medal in the United World Wrestling (UWW) Ranking Series this year.

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Sujeet began his campaign with a confident 16-4 victory over Albania’s Endrio Avdyli. He then defeated Georgia’s Nika Zakashvili 10-0 in the quarterfinals before overpowering two-time Pan American champion Joseph McKenna of the USA 11-0 in the semifinals.

This triumph follows his gold medal win at the Zagreb Open in Croatia earlier this month, marking an impressive back-to-back achievement on the international circuit. Against Babazade in the final, Sujeet controlled the bout from start to finish and did not allow his opponent any opportunity to settle into rhythm.

Mixed results for Indian contingent

Overall, this was Sujeet’s fourth gold medal in UWW tournaments, adding to his previous victories at the 2022 Zouhaier Sghaier event and the 2025 Polyak Imre & Varga Janos Memorial.

India fielded a 48-member team across men’s freestyle, women’s wrestling and Greco-Roman categories. While Sujeet led the charge, several others fell short of the podium.

In the 57kg division, Ankush and Atish Todkar reached the bronze medal matches through repechage but could not convert them into podium finishes. Wrestlers including Sumit, Rahul, Siddharth, Parvinder and Aryan exited earlier in their respective weight classes.

Despite mixed outcomes, Sujeet’s gold medal provided India with a major highlight at the Tirana event.

(With inputs from IANS)