Zagreb Open Ranking Series: Sujeet Kalkal clinched men's 65 kg gold medal

The rising Indian wrestler Sujeet Kalkal clinched the gold medal in his first international tournament of the year at the Zagreb Open in Croatia on Wednesday.

Sujeet showed a dominating performance throughout the day and clinched the men's 65kg freestyle title without dropping a single point in his 3 bouts.

This is the third ranking series tile for the reigning U23 World Champion after Zouhaier Sghaier 2022 and Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial 2025.

Sujeet started the day with a technical superiority 10-0 win over the European silver medalist Khamzat Arsamerzouev of France before knocking out American wrestler Joseph McKenna to reach final.

In the final, Sujeet was also trying to dominate the proceedings from the start against Iranian wrestler Peyman Nemati, but was not able to breach his solid defence.

However, he somehow managed to find a take-down with his aggressive play and edge past Nemati 3-0 in a closely fought battle to win the title.

Meanwhile, the Olympic medalist Aman Sehrawat had a bit of a disappointing outing as he could not win the gold medal in men's 61 Kg setlling for a silver medal.

In a group stage round robin Nordic format, Aman finished second with 3 wins from 4 bouts to finish second behind USA's Austin Desanto, who pinned Aman en route to gold.

Later in the day, Abhimanyou Mandwal bagged the third medal of the day for India, winning the men's 70 kg bronze medal with a 6-3 win over American Wrestler Ian Maxwell Parker.

Meanwhile, two Indian wrestlers, Mukul Dahiya (86 Kg) and Atish Todkar (57 Kg), lost their respective bronze medal bouts to Iranian wrestlers.