By Ken Marantz
OCA Media
Nagoya, Japan, October 2, 2026: On a day filled with stunning comebacks, India’s Sujeet put on a remarkable one for the gold—an impressive encore after earlier rallying to beat the Olympic champion.
Sujeet, the reigning Asian champion, fought out of a seven-point hole to defeat Tajikistan’s Abdulmazhid Kudiev 10-9 in the 65kg final on Friday, the first day of freestyle wrestling at the Asian Games at Inae Sports Center.
“I had the mind to take the gold for my country, so I didn’t lose hope,” Sujeet said.
Iran took the two other golds at stake, as Mohammad Nokhodi barely avoided being a victim of a late rally himself to take the 86kg title, and world champion Amir Hossein Zare survived a semifinal scare before adding his second straight Asian Games 125kg gold to his long list of laurels.
In the 65kg final, Sujeet was quickly put on his back heels by Kudiev, who was aiming to avenge his 7-2 semifinal loss to the Indian at the Asian Championships in April.
The Russian-born Kudiev, who had won his three previous matches by a combined score of 33-2, looked to be cruising to another one-sided victory when he scored two quick takedowns and went into the second period with a hefty 9-2 lead.
But that wasn’t enough against the determined Sujeet, who turned the tide with a stream of four unanswered takedowns, the latest coming with 12 seconds left to snatch the gold.
Sujeet had a tight clamp on a single leg when Kudiev tried to twist out of it, but the Indian spun behind to finish the decisive move.
“In starting, when I was losing points, I felt pressure, but then I got my rhythm and I knew I could cover the points,” said Sujeet.
Sujeet had pulled off the surprise of the morning session, when he upended Paris Olympic champion Kotaro Kiyooka of Japan 3-3 on big-point criteria in the semifinals.
Sujeet scored a defensive takedown in the second period, with that 2-point move making the difference as Kiyooka was limited to three 1-point moves—paying the price for his inability to finish off his takedowns.
“It was a very tough match,” Sujeet said. “He’s a very good wrestler; obviously, he’s the Olympic champion. I’m preparing for every opponent, so I was prepared for that.”
Kiyooka bounced back from the disappointing defeat and assured he would not leave Nagoya empty-handed, scoring a second-period takedown to edge Abbas Ebrahimzahdeh 3-2 in a bronze-medal match.
The other 65kg bronze went to Kazakhstan’s Nachyn Kuular, who was headed to certain defeat when, in the dying seconds, he nailed Asian silver medalist Kim Kwang Jin for a 4-point takedown to the back for a 7-5 win.
*In the 86kg final, Nokhodi scraped out a thrilling 9-6 victory over Japan’s Hayato Ishiguro, who scored five points in the final minute but came up just short in the battle between world medalists.
Nokhodi, a three-time world bronze medalist at 79kg, used a nice ankle pick for a first-period takedown that was hardly a harbinger of what was to come.
In the second period, Ishiguro was on the verge of knotting the score, but tried to transition to a roll before completing a takedown.
Nokhodi caught him on his back and, upon review during a challenge, was awarded 2 points, while Ishiguro received none.
Ishiguro got on the scoreboard with a stepout, but Nokhodi responded with a takedown and stepout to go ahead 7-1.
With the match entering its final minute, Ishiguro executed a slick inside trip for 2, then added two stepouts, with a fleeing point tacked onto the first one, to cut the gap to 7-6.
But Nokhodi stopped a late desperation front body-lock throw by Ishiguro to add two more points to the final margin of victory.
In the bronze-medal matches, Mongolia’s Sulkhuu Olonbayar had just given up a go-ahead takedown to Kazakhstan’s Azamat Dauletbekov when he turned the table with one of his own with two seconds left for a 5-3 win.
The other bronze went to Kyrgyzstan’s Malik Shavaev, a 12-1 winner over Lee Gyeongyeon of Korea.
*At 125kg, Zare spotted China’s Buheeerdun an early takedown in the final, then quickly took control before storming to a 14-2 victory in just over four minutes.
Zare immediately took over the lead and made a statement with a 4-point single-leg takedown to the back.
Going into the second period with an 8-2 lead, Zare finished off the match by bulling Buheeerdun down for a takedown, then applying an ankle lock and rolling him twice to end the match at 4:06.
The semifinals, meanwhile, went anything but according to form, as Zare needed a late takedown to avoid a stunning loss, while Buheeerdun snatched a victory from the jaws of a seven-point
deficit.
Zare was on the verge of an unfathomable 3-2 loss to Kazakhstan’s Yedige Kassimbek late in second period when he finished off a takedown with six seconds on the clock for a 3-3 win on last-point criteria.
Buheeerdun was in an even bigger hole, down 7-0 to world bronze medalist Shamil Sharipov of Bahrain, when he suddenly threw Sharipov to his back and secured a fall over his stunned opponent.
Both Kessimbek and Sharipov came back to take the bronze medals.