For the unaware people, World Wrestling Championship'26 has been going on and Women's Wrestling started today. Greco-Roman weight classes ended today and we have had a very poor outing in there considering only one wrestler in Greco secured a win out of the whole Greco contingent. Mind you, every country sends their best contingent to this event. However, due to Asian Games completing just weeks before this, many wrestlers such as Deepak Punia/Aman Sehrawat/Antim Panghal have skipped this tournament due to weight cuts.
Wrestling has 3 divisions:
1) Men's Greco Roman (traditionally the standard in a lot of European countries): India is very poor in Greco but has shown signs of improvement recently. Nitesh Siwach is one who has shown massive improvements recently but had a disappointing campaign in this tournament. It's upper body dominant technique based wrestling and you can't attack on the legs like in Freestyle
2) Women's Wrestling : The only category for Women's Wrestling. Indian Squad is pretty okayish. Antim is a huge miss considering she is the only medalist from last 2 editions.
3) Men's Freestyle: India's strongest division traditionally. Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Aman Sehrawat, Deepak Punia, Ravi Dahiya, Sujeet Kalkal - all are Freestyle Wrestlers. Sujeet is the brightest hope we have in this world championships.
Now the massive massive set of results have yielded a historic day for tomorrow. Two of our girls - Neelam (50Kg) and Kajal(76Kg) have entered the Finals and will be competing for Gold tomorrow.
Neelam had a great draw as she escaped the half-bracket which has Susaki (greatest of this generation, only lost to Vinesh in her international career). Neelam defeated Varakina(Bulgaria) 6-0 in the RO16, and she was set to face Smirnova(Russia) in Quarter-Finals. However, Smirnova suffered a severe eye injury after a nasty poke she suffered from Turner(USA, got disqualified for this) so Neelam got a walkover to Semis. In Semis, Neelam faced home favorite Bayanova who she defeated 7-3.
The challenge for Neelam is the toughest she can ever hope for. Susaki hasn't conceded a single point in this tournament and has teched (10-0 score, bout ends right there with result marked as technical superiority) 3 of her opponents, with her Semis ending in 9-0. Neelam doesn't stand a chance against Susaki and I'd be pretty satisfied if Neelam manages to score a point against Susaki, a takedown would be amazing, and a win....even though chances of that happening are 0.001%, would be the biggest win in History of Indian Wrestling.
Kajal had a lethal draw and I am very very surprised by the turn of events today. Kagami (World's best 76Kg wrestler currently, Japan) isn't competing this time due to weight cut issues after Asian Games, which made Aiperi Medet(Krygystan) favorite for Gold in this tournament. Kajal was in the same bracket as Aiperi. For those who don't remember, Aiperi was the reason for one of the heartbreaks in Paris Olympics as she defeated Reetika Hooda in Quarter-Finals on criteria.
Kajal is only 18 so I wasn't expecting much from her here considering Aiperi, Alpyeyeva (Ukraine) and Potrille(Cuba, Paris Oly Bronze Medalist) were there. Having Aiperi in Semis was supposed to be the end but oh boy, has she surprised us here. She was trailing 1-7 at one point and did concede a 4 point takedown earlier, another 4 pointer by Aiperi which looked likely would've ended the bout right then and there, but Kajal held herself brilliantly. She was leading in the later half by 1 point, Aiperi tried to score a takedown in the dying seconds of the bout but Kajal ended up scoring another takedown. That scream by Kakal after winning the bout showed everything she felt.
Coming back to tomorrow, Kajal is supposed to face Alpyeyeva of Ukraine. She is a pretty solid wrestler. If that makes you any happy, Aiperi defeated her last year in World Championships rather comfortably. Also Alpyeyeva is coming off a thrilling win in Quarter-Finals against a relatively much weaker Guilford (USA) but managed to defeat Kocak(Turkey) by technical superiority in Semis who staged an amazing upset defeating Olympic Medalist Potrille in RO16.
On paper, I'd rate Alpyeyeva as the slight favorite being more experienced but it's nothing more than 55-45 here, so pretty even odds.
Where to watch?
Whole tournament is being televised on UWW+ , and the tournament pass is costing about 450 rs which is absurdly high. I will share a link for the free stream, but reddit is auto-removing my comments with that link so please DM me in daytime tomorrow for the link. Or I'll find some other way to paste the link.
When are the medal bouts tomorrow?
6:30 PM IST onwards.
Why tomorrow will be an iconic day for Indian wrestling irrespective of the results?
India has never had more than one wrestler in the Finals in the same edition. This can very well increase to more than two considering we have a lot of categories left.
Till now, only Anshu Malik in women's division has managed to reach to the Final of World Championship. This time, we have both Neelam and Kajal.
If either of Kajal and Neelam manage to win Gold tomorrow, we'll have our first ever woman world champion from India.
India has had only one World Champion so far - Sushil Kumar (2010)
Tune in tomorrow!
