India make history as Neelam Sirohi and Kajal Dhochak win silver at World Championships in Astana

In Astana on Wednesday, Neelam Sirohi and Kajal Dhochak each claimed silver medals at the World Wrestling Championships, the first time two Indian women have reached senior World final bouts in the same edition.

Kajal Dhochak, 18, lost 6-8 to Ukraine’s Anastasiya Alpyeyeva in the women’s 76kg final after a tightly contested match. Kajal trailed 1-3 after the opening three-minute period, rallied to level at 4-4, but Alpyeyeva — a two-time European champion — executed a decisive move and exposure angle to move 8-4; Kajal added a late takedown but could not close the gap.

Competing at the senior Worlds for the first time, Kajal entered the final after a semifinal comeback in which she beat Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy 10-7 after trailing 1-7. The silver medal capped what the report described as an impressive campaign for the teenager, who is a two-time under-20 world champion.

Neelam Sirohi, 26, reached the women’s 50kg final by defeating Kazakhstan’s Zeinep Bayanova 7-3. In the title match she faced Japan’s Yui Susaki, who established a 5-0 lead before pinning Neelam towards the end of the opening period and secured the world title without conceding a point throughout her tournament campaign.

Susaki’s victory in Astana was her fifth World Championships crown; she had previously won once at 48kg and three times at 50kg. Neelam’s silver represented a breakthrough after she had missed an Asian Games selection spot earlier in the year.

Until now, Anshu Malik’s silver in the 57kg category at the 2021 World Championships in Oslo had been the only runner-up finish by an Indian woman at the senior Worlds. Neelam and Kajal became the first Indian women to reach finals at the same edition of the senior World Championships, producing a double-silver finish that the report said strengthens the nation’s growing presence in women’s wrestling.