India's 20-year-old wrestlers Antim Panghal and Harshita Mor won gold medals at the Budapest Ranking Series in Hungary on Friday (July 19, 2025) as the country's women grapplers claimed four medals on the second day of the tournament. Neha Sangwan took silver and Neelam bagged bronze to take India's medal tally at the last ranking series of the season to six.
Olympian Antim notched up her second consecutive Ranking Series gold medal after her title at the Ulaanbaatar Open in Mongolia in May. She avenged her Paris 2024 defeat to Turkiye's Zeynep Yetgil with a 10-0 thrashing in the opening round in Budapest, before notching up another 10-0 scoreline against America’s Felicity Kay Taylor to enter the 53kg final.
In the gold medal bout, Antim defeated Russia's Natalia Malysheva 7-4 to reign supreme. Later, compatriot Harshita got the better of France’s Pauline Lecarpentier via disqualification and Kseniia Burakova via fall, before beating Kazakhstan's four-time World Wrestling Championships medallist Zhamila Bakbergenova in the 72kg final.
The 18-year-old Neha, meanwhile, finished with silver in the 57kg category after a 0-4 defeat via pinfall in the gold medal bout against former Olympic champion Helen Maroulis of the United States. And in the women's 50kg, 25-year-old Neelam took bronze via repechage.
In the men's 74kg, Jaideep bowled out in the quarter-finals. India had garnered two medals on the first day of the meet with Sujeet Kalkal winning gold in the 65kg men’s freestyle, and Rahul snaring bronze in the 57kg category.
