Aman Sehrawat won the men’s freestyle 57kg gold at the Asian Games 2026 on October 3, beating North Korea’s Han Chong Song 11-7 in the final to become the first Indian wrestler to win Asian Games gold in the category.
The two late bouts followed a similar pattern. In the semifinal he was 2-6 down against Tajikistan’s Aiaal Belolyubskii and won 14-8.
In the final he trailed 6-7 against Han Chong Song, the reigning world champion according to the Sunday Guardian, and then scored late to win.
The medal adds to a record that already includes a Paris 2024 Olympic bronze in 57kg freestyle and a bronze at the 2023 Asian Games.
It was one of several Indian golds on Day 14, alongside golf, archery and cricket.
Sehrawat is a Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist in 57kg freestyle.
He also won bronze at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
In the quarterfinals he beat Kazakhstan’s Nurdanat Aitanov 12-1.
In the semifinals he recovered from 2-6 down to beat Tajikistan’s Aiaal Belolyubskii 14-8.
Both Business Today and the Sunday Guardian reported the 11-7 final score and the first-in-category claim.
Sujeet Kalkal had earlier won gold in the men’s 65kg freestyle at the same Games.
The Asian Games 2026 are being held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4.
October 3 was Day 14 of the Games, and India also won golds in golf, archery and cricket on the same day.
Freestyle wrestling bouts are won by scoring technical points, and a bout can also end early if one wrestler leads by a large margin.
The 57kg category is one of the lighter freestyle weight classes, and it was also Sehrawat’s weight at the Paris Olympics.
Sehrawat came back from 2-6 down in the semifinal, which meant he had already won one bout from behind before the final.
Freestyle wrestling gold medal match (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0