ASTANA, October 30 (Aalimi Nation) – Manisha Bhanwala on Friday became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the senior World Wrestling Championships, coming back from a six-point deficit to win the women's 59kg final in Astana, Kazakhstan.
The 29-year-old wrestler from Rohtak in Haryana defeated Abigail Nette of the United States 8-6. Nette had opened with a commanding lead, but Manisha won the remaining exchanges to turn the bout around and take the title.
Comeback in the 59kg final
The result ends a long wait for Indian women's wrestling at the sport's biggest annual event. Anshu Malik reached the final of the 2021 edition but had to settle for silver, and no Indian woman had finished on top of the podium before Friday. Manisha is also only the second Indian wrestler of either gender to win a senior world title, after Sushil Kumar, who took the men's 66kg gold in Moscow in 2010.
The medal is also Manisha's first at the World Championships. She trained at the Chhotu Ram Akhada in Rohtak and won gold at the 2016 South Asian Games. She later collected bronze medals at the Asian Championships in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and won gold at the Asian Championships in 2025.
Manisha's gold capped a strong week for the Indian women's squad, which finished with four medals. Neelam Sirohi took silver in the 50kg category after losing the final to Yui Susaki of Japan. Kajal Dhochak won silver at 76kg, losing her final 8-6 to Anastasiya Alpyeyeva of Ukraine. Tanu Sharma added a bronze at 72kg.
The tally also marked the first time India has had two women in gold-medal bouts at the same edition of the championships, and Manisha was the third Indian woman to reach a final in Astana.
The men's freestyle team had a harder tournament. Vicky Hooda, competing at 97kg, lost his repechage bout to Iran's Hassan Yazdani by technical superiority, 10-0, which ended his campaign. Indian wrestlers in the 61kg, 70kg, 86kg and 125kg categories were eliminated in the early rounds, before the semi-finals were held on Friday.
Indian women have won medals at the Olympic Games and the Asian level for years, but the world title had remained out of reach. Manisha's win gives Indian women's wrestling its first world title.
Her route to the title has been gradual rather than sudden. She moved between weight categories, competing at 60kg and 62kg in earlier years before settling at 59kg for the world event. The gold at the 2025 Asian Championships showed she could win against a continental field, and Friday's final tested her against a rival who had built an early advantage.
No official statements from the Wrestling Federation of India or the government were available at the time of writing.
