Sujeet Kalkal clinches back-to-back Wrestling Ranking Series title

Sujeet Kalkal continued his unbeaten run in 2026, winning his second consecutive gold medal at the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series in Albania on Wednesday.

The star wrestler showed dominance throughout the day to clinch the title with a technical superiority win over Rashid Babazade of Azerbaijan in the men's 65Kg final.

This is the third consecutive Ranking Series title for the youngster after the Hungary Ranking Series last year, and now Zagreb Open and Muhamet Malo in 2026.

He won all of his bouts on the technical superiority, securing 47 points from the 3 bouts and just conceded 4 points to continue his rise in this category.

He was the only Indian wrestler to win a medal on the first day of men's freestyle action, as both Atish Todkar and Akshay Dhere lost their bronze medal bouts.

Both these wrestlers reached the bronze medal match of men's 57Kg via repechage, but then Atish fell short to Horst Lehr of Germany, while Akshay lost to Islam Bazarganov of Azerbaijan. 

On the other hand, Sumit (57Kg), Rahul (61Kg), Mohit (65Kg), Siddharth (70 kg), Parvinder (74Kg), and Aryan (86Kg) failed to win any bout and faced an early exit.

The final four categories of the men's freestyle and the first two women's freestyle categories will open on Thursday.