At 18, Kajal Dhochak Won 76kg Silver at the 2026 World Wrestling Championships in Astana, the First Heavyweight Medal for an Indian Woman at the Senior Worlds

Kajal Dhochak, 18, won silver in the women’s 76kg at the Senior World Wrestling Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 28 October 2026, in her first senior world event. She lost the final 8-6 to Ukraine’s Anastasiya Alpyeyeva. Outlook India and the news agency IANS report it as the first medal by an Indian woman in the heavyweight category at the world championships, and 76kg is the heaviest women’s class in the Astana draw. The governing body, United World Wrestling (UWW), does not use that wording in its report. It records that Kajal and Neelam Sirohi became the second and third Indian women to reach a senior world final, after Anshu Malik at 57kg in 2021.

Down 1-7 in the semi-final

The 76kg draw had 20 entries, according to UWW’s results. Her route to the final began with wins over Lithuania’s Kamile Griskiene Gaucaite and Mongolia’s Davaanasan Enkh Amar, according to a PTI report that carries a statement from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). On Tuesday 27 October she met Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy in the semi-final. Medet Kyzy is a three-time world medallist, UWW says.

India Sports Hub says Medet Kyzy landed a four-point headlock throw, added two exposure points and built a 7-1 lead, and that two Indian video challenges failed. Outlook India reports that Kajal then hit an angled double-leg takedown to lead 8-7 and won 10-7. At the end of the bout she raised Medet Kyzy’s hand. Sanjay Singh, the WFI president, said in the federation’s statement that her comeback “showed tremendous belief and courage.”

The final: 4-4, then a late takedown

On Wednesday 28 October, UWW reports, Kajal twice held the lead on criteria, the tie-break rule that decides a level score. Here is PTI’s account of the final. Kajal conceded the first points on a step-out and a passivity penalty, trailing 0-2, then levelled at 2-2 with a push-out throw late in the first period. In the second period Alpyeyeva scored with a double-leg takedown and Kajal answered with one of her own, making it 4-4 with Kajal ahead on criteria.

About 20 seconds from the end Alpyeyeva scored a takedown and an exposure, two moves worth four points together, to lead 8-4. Kajal replied with a takedown with six seconds left, according to UWW, and then tried for a turn that would have won the bout, but time ran out. Alpyeyeva’s gold was her first medal in five trips to the senior Worlds, UWW notes. It calls her a two-time European champion, as does IANS; PTI says three-time.

Kajal’s own reading of the ending, given to IANS on 1 November, was that she turned defensive in the last moments and that attacking would have won the gold. At the venue she told UWW: “I can beat them all.” She also told IANS she had beaten Alpyeyeva before, and Outlook India places that earlier meeting in the Pro Wrestling League.

Two U20 world titles and a 2026 of gold medals

Kajal is the 2025 world U20 champion at 72kg, UWW states. IANS adds that she won the U17 world title at 69kg in 2024, and that her 2026 U20 title, at 76kg, was a second in a row. In August 2026, All India Radio reports, she won that final 7-0 against China’s Jingru Sun. The IANS report places the event in Slovakia and says she conceded no points in the tournament.

Her senior-level results ran ahead of the Worlds. At the Ulaanbaatar Open in June she won 76kg gold, beating Nigeria’s Damola Ojo 8-0 in the final, All India Radio reports. At the Budapest Ranking Series in July she won gold in a 3-3 final against the United States’ Dymond Guilford, decided on criteria, PTI says. Guilford later took a 76kg bronze in Astana, UWW’s results show.

Ahead of the senior Worlds she told Outlook India: “Manne haarna bilkul ni pasand,” which Outlook translates as “I hate losing.”

The Asian Games trial she lost

She was not at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. The WFI’s women’s selection trials were held in New Delhi in May, and Khel Now’s report shows her winning her 76kg semi-final 6-2. Its squad list names Priya Malik at 76kg. In the final of the trials, she told IANS, she thought with seconds left that her selection was done and planned to go and hug her uncle; the match “completely flipped” at the end. Processing the loss took her time, she said, before she turned to training for the Worlds. The Asian Games wrestling results, in which India won six medals, are in India at the 2026 Asian Games.

An uncle, a mother and an academy in Sonipat

Her home is Lath village in Sonipat district, Haryana. Her uncle Krishan Dhochak, a former international heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler whose career ended with an injury, became her coach, Outlook India reports. She told Outlook that her mother, Babita, and she started learning wrestling together, and that the family later decided Kajal would continue. Babita wears a chain with the Olympic rings whenever Kajal competes, Outlook says.

The CSR Journal reports that Kajal trains at the Kuldeep Malik Sports Academy in Sonipat, where Ajay Malik is among her coaches, and that she is studying for a BA. Ajay Malik told the Journal that she needs to refine her defence as she moves up to senior level, which matches what Kajal herself said about the final.

What comes next

Women’s freestyle at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics has six weights: 50, 53, 57, 62, 68 and 76kg, as NBC Olympics lists them. On 1 November she told IANS: “I am 100 percent confident in myself that I will secure an Olympic qualification.” She named the Commonwealth championships trials, the senior nationals, the Pro Wrestling League and the Senior Asian ranking events as her next stops.

India finished the 2026 Worlds with four women’s medals: Manisha Bhanwala’s gold at 59kg, silver for Kajal and Neelam Sirohi, and Tanu Sharma’s bronze at 72kg. Manisha’s final is covered in the Manisha Bhanwala article. Anshu Malik’s 2021 silver had been the best an Indian woman managed in a senior world final before this edition, and an earlier generation of Indian women wrestlers is covered in the Phogat sisters article.