Sujeet Kalkal Wins Gold at UWW Ranking Series in Albania

(MENAFN- IANS) Tirana (Albania), Feb 26 (IANS) U23 world champion Sujeet Kalkal secured the gold medal in the men’s 65kg freestyle category at the Muhamet Malo 2026 wrestling tournament. He topped the podium with four consecutive wins by technical superiority.

The 23-year-old Indian defeated Azerbaijan’s Rashid Babazade 10-0 in the final. He also recorded an 11-0 victory over USA’s two-time Pan American champion Joseph McKenna in the semifinals, after beating Nika Zakashvili of Georgia 10-0 in the quarter-finals and beginning his campaign with a 16-4 win over Endrio Avdyli of Albania.

This marks his second straight gold medal in the 2026 UWW Ranking Series, following his victory at the Zagreb Open in Croatia earlier this month.

Sujeet started with a 16-4 win over Endrio Avdyli, who threw him for four points at the start of the bout. Next, Nika Zakashvili (Georgia) was defeated 10-0, before Sujeet beat Joseph McKenna (USA) 11-0, the same scoreline as in the Zagreb Open semifinals.

Rashid, who scored an incredible buzzer-beater four-pointer in the semifinals against Vitali Arujau (USA) to win 16-13, was unable to mount a challenge in the final. Sujeet dominated him to win 10-0 and claim his second consecutive Ranking Series gold medal.

Overall, this was Sujeet’s fourth gold medal in the UWW circuit, having previously won at the 2022 Zouhaier Sghaier and the 2025 Polyak Imre & Varga János Memorials.

India’s Mohit Kumar, competing in the same category, did not advance past the qualifying round.

In the 57kg division, Ankush and Atish Todkar fought through repechage to reach the bronze medal matches but fell short in their respective bouts. Meanwhile, Sumit (57kg), Rahul (61kg), Siddharth (70kg), Parvinder (74kg), and Aryan (86kg) did not reach the medal rounds in their weight classes.

India sent a 48-member wrestling team to Muhamet Malo 2026, with 16 competitors each in men’s freestyle, women’s divisions, and Greco-Roman categories.