Olympic medallist Aman Sehrawat and world championships medallist Antim Panghal struck golds at the National Wrestling Championships 2025, which was held in Ahmedabad, albeit in unfamiliar weight classes.
Paris 2024 bronze medal winner Aman Sehrawat was competing in the 61kg men’s freestyle division instead of his pet 57kg class as he wanted to avoid cutting weight for the national event.
Interestingly, Aman Sehrawat, who is India’s youngest Olympic medallist, was disqualified from the World Wrestling Championships in Croatia earlier this year as he was overweight during the weigh-in.
The incident saw him being suspended for a year by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), but it was later lifted, allowing him to contest the nationals.
Competing at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex, Aman Sehrawat outclassed Nikhil 10-0 in the final on Saturday to take the men’s 61kg crown.
Earlier, Aman beat Adhit Narayan 12-1 in the opening round before overpowering Lalit 10-0 in the quarter-finals despite suffering a nasty cut over his right eye.
The Olympic medallist then fought on with a bandaged and bleeding eyebrow to defeat Anuj Kumar 13-2 in the semi-finals after erasing a 2-0 deficit.
Under-23 world champion Sujeet Kalkal beat Vishal Kaliraman 10-0 in the final to win the men’s 65kg crown. Vicky, an Asian U23 gold medal winner, won the 97kg title.
Two-time world championships medallist Antim Panghal also opted to compete in the 55kg instead of the 53kg class because she didn’t want to go through the rigours of cutting weight for the season-ender like Aman.
On Friday, Antim defeated Hansika 8-0 in the quarter-finals, beat Ahilya Shinde 14-8 in the semi-finals and overcame Jyoti 5-0 in the final en route to the title.
Antim has competed in the 55kg category in the past, but all her major international accomplishments have come in the 53kg division.
Manisha Bhanwala, the Asian champion in the 62kg division, dropped to 57kg and edged out Neha Sharma 2-1 to emerge as the champion.
In the women’s 68kg final, Olympian Nisha Dahiya led Srishti 4-0 after the first period before securing a fall with more than two minutes remaining to claim the gold medal.
The Ahmedabad meet marks the first major national competition post the Paris 2024 Olympics. The event concluded on Sunday with the Greco-Roman events.
National Wrestling Championships 2025 winners
Women’s freestyle
50kg – Neelam
53kg – Anjali
55kg – Antim Panghal
57kg – Manisha(HAR)
59kg – Rajnita
62kg – Anjali
65kg – Pulkit
68kg – Nisha Dahiya
72kg – Diksha
76 Kg – Jyoti
Men’s freestyle
57kg – Ankush
61kg – Aman Sehrawat
65kg – Sujeet Kalkal
70kg – Abhimanyou
74kg – Chandermohan
79kg – Amit
86kg – Mukul Dahiya
92kg – Jonty
97kg – Vicky
125kg – Dinesh
Greco-Roman
55kg – Lalit
60kg –Â Sahil Kadyan
63kg –Â Chetan
67kg –Â Sachin Sehrawat
72kg –Â Kuldeep Malik
77kg –Â Aman
82kg – Prince
87kg –Â Rohit
97kg –Â Nitesh Kumar
130kg –Â Joginder