U23 World Wrestling Championships 2024: Chirag Wins Gold as India Finish With Nine Medals

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Chirag Chikkara clinched gold as the Indian wrestling contingent finished the U23 World Wrestling Championships 2024 with a total of nine medals, including a gold, a silver and seven bronze medals, at the event held from October 21-27 in Tirana, Albania.

Chirag's solitary gold medal for India in the men's 57 kg competition, was only the third time an Indian secured the top spot in the championships after Olympic medalist Aman Sehrawat (men's 57kg) in 2022 and Reetika Hooda (women's 76kg) in 2023.

Tokyo Olympics 2020 medalist Ravi Kumar Dahiya had also clinched a silver medal in the men's 57 kg division back in 2018. Chirag was one of nine medallists for India in 2024.

Anji, a competitor in women's 59 kg, secured the silver medal for India. Monika, who claimed the bronze medal in women's 65 kg last year, continued her fine run in the tournament with her second successive bronze medal, this time in 68 kg.

Sujeet, a former U20 World Championships bronze medalist who represented the nation in Paris 2024 Olympic qualifiers this year, also got the men's 70 kg freestyle bronze medal.

Vicky secured the bronze medal in men's 97 kg, becoming the first Indian to win a medal in the heavyweight category at the U23 World Championships. Here is a look at the full list of Indian medal winners in UWW U23 World Championships 2024:

Indian Medallists in U23 World Championships 2024

• Chirag Chikkara - Gold in Men's Freestyle 57 kg
• Anjli - Silver in Women's Freestyle 59 kg
• Shiksha - Bronze in Women's Freestyle 65 kg
• Monika - Bronze in Women's Freestyle 68 kg
• Neha Sharma - Bronze in Women's Freestyle 57 kg
• Vishvajit More - Bronze in Men's Greco-Roman 55 kg
• Vicky - Bronze in Men's Freestyle 97 kg
• Sujeet Kalkal - Bronze in Men's Freestyle 70 kg
• Abhishek Dhaka - Bronze in Men's Freestyle 61 kg

Competitions were organised for 10 weight categories each in men's and women's freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. India had one entry per category as a total of 664 grapplers, with 240 in men's freestyle and greco-roman and 184 in women's freestyle category were at Albania to compete.

The Indian wrestling team had also won nine medals, including a gold, two silver and six bronze from last year's U23 World Championships, when the country's wrestlers competed under the UWW flag.

As a result of sanctions by the UWW imposed on the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for not conducting its elections on time, wrestlers from India were not permitted to use the name, flag, or anthem of India in 2023.