Anup Rajkonwar wins national gold, qualifies for World Championship in Japan
Anup Rajkonwar turned national gold into a ticket to Japan, beating a deep field and moving from contender to India’s next world-stage hope.
Anup Rajkonwar turned a national gold medal into something bigger: a place at the World Armwrestling Championship in Japan. The Assam puller won at the National Armwrestling Championship after beating strong opponents from multiple states, a result that pushed him from national contender to international representative.
Rajkonwar’s breakthrough mattered because it came against a demanding field, not in a soft draw. The win showed he could handle pressure at the top end of Indian armwrestling, where every round carries the weight of selection and the next match can define an athlete’s season. For Assam, it was also another sign that the state’s armwrestlers are producing athletes ready to fight beyond domestic circuits.
The qualification adds the real value to the medal. The 2026 IFA World Armwrestling Championships are scheduled for September 22 to 28 in Japan, with junior, masters, seniors and disabled divisions and doping control in place. Rajkonwar’s national title now gives him a direct path into that international lineup, where he will test himself against the sport’s best later in 2026.
His rise fits into a broader Indian armwrestling surge. The Indian Arm Wrestling Federation lists the 47th National Arm Wrestling Championship at Nehru Bhawan in Ludhiana, Punjab, while Assam’s wider medal haul at the 5th National Arm Wrestling Championship in Bengaluru from May 23 to 25, 2025, underlined the state’s depth: 52 gold, 37 silver and 20 bronze medals across competition from 18 states. That kind of volume has given Assam a stronger pipeline, and Rajkonwar now sits at the sharp end of it.
The timing also matters for the sport’s profile in India. Delhi has already been awarded hosting rights for the 47th World Armwrestling Championship and the 28th Para Armwrestling Championship 2026, with more than 2,000 athletes from over 75 countries expected. Against that backdrop, Rajkonwar’s gold is not just a personal milestone. It is another marker of how firmly India has become part of armwrestling’s global conversation, and why Assam’s latest champion is a name to watch as the road to Japan begins to narrow.
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