Evelin Ujhelji wins silver at U23 Wrestling Worlds
The Serbian wrestler beat the reigning senior European champion by one point in the semifinal, then lost the final to American Kylie Welker.
One point. That was all that separated Evelin Ujhelji from Nadiia Sokolovska in the Las Vegas semifinal. Sokolovska is the reigning senior European champion, and the Serbian wrestler won the match 11-10. The win sent her into the final of the U23 World Championships, where she took silver: American Kylie Welker was better in the gold medal bout.
The score of the final has not been published, and neither has the weight class in which Ujhelji competed. What is known is what matters most for wrestling in Serbia: the silver from Las Vegas is the biggest result in the history of women’s wrestling in the country.
How did Ujhelji reach the final?
Her route to the medal featured two very different matches. In the quarterfinal the margin was ten points, in the semifinal just one:
- quarterfinal: beat India’s Diksha Malik, 12-2
- semifinal: beat Nadiia Sokolovska, 11-10
- final: lost to Kylie Welker, score not published
The Sokolovska match is what sets this silver apart. The Ukrainian is a senior European champion, a wrestler from an older age group, and Ujhelji beat her by that single point.
How many medals does she already have at major events?
Las Vegas is her third medal at major competitions and the first that is not bronze. She won bronze at the cadet European Championships in Tirana in 2023 and another at the junior European Championships in Skopje this year. The progression follows her age groups: cadet, junior, and now world runner-up among wrestlers under 23.
What does the coach say?
After the medal, Dalibor Perovic, head coach of Serbia’s women’s wrestling team, spoke. His message is that this is not an end point but part of a sequence:
Women’s wrestling in Serbia is on an upward path and we are ready to go after Olympic qualification standards as early as next year. We have worked seriously and we have quality girls, which we prove by continuously winning medals at major competitions. Just when we think we are at the top, at the next competition we jump over it. We will not stop, we are going for more medals for Serbia and for a push toward the Olympic standards.
Perovic thereby named a goal for the coming season. The women’s team is heading for Olympic qualification next year, which means the results from Las Vegas can be read as a starting point for that attempt, and not only as a finished tournament.
