Sujeet Kalkal: From Paris Heartbreak to Asian Games Wrestling Gold
Sujeet Kalkal turned a painful Olympic setback into motivation, staging a stunning comeback in the Asian Games final to win wrestling gold for India.
Sujeet Kalkal knows a thing or two about fighting back. Two years after missing the Paris Olympics because floods disrupted his journey to the Asian qualifying event in Kyrgyzstan, the 23-year-old wrestler found himself staring at another major setback in the Asian Games final.
This time, however, there was no flight to catch or weather disaster to blame. Sujeet was simply trailing Tajikistan’s Abdulmazhid Kudiev 2-9 in the men’s 65kg freestyle final, with the gold medal appearing to slip away.
Then came the comeback.
Sujeet produced an eight-point scoring burst to overturn the deficit and take a 10-9 lead. He held his nerve in the closing moments to secure gold and end India’s eight-year wait for a wrestling gold at the Asian Games.
The victory also put him alongside Indian wrestling greats Yogeshwar Dutt and Bajrang Punia as the only Indians to win Asian Games gold in the 65kg freestyle category.
For Sujeet, the key was refusing to think about the past. He said the Paris disappointment was beyond his control and that his only job in the final was to keep fighting until the last moment.
The Asian Games gold is now his biggest achievement, but Sujeet has already set his sights higher. With the World Championships approaching in Kazakhstan, he dreams of adding another medal before ultimately chasing the Olympic title he missed out on in Paris.
And with the World Championships taking place around Diwali, Sujeet has a simple definition of celebration: win a medal, and the festival is sorted.
