Wrestlers return, shift focus to Olympic qualifiers
After spending a 3-day delay in Istanbul, victorious Nigerian wrestling team to the 2020 African Championships held in Algiers, Algeria are back in the country.
The team that won 14 medals (7gold, 5silver and 2bronze) at the championship arrived at the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Lagos Friday night after spending extra three days in Turkey due to bad weather during their stopover in Istanbul.
In a chat with Sportinglife.ng on arrival, Secretary General of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Umar Lambu said the team will now shift focus the African/Oceania Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament billed to hold in El Jadida, Morocco from March 13–15, 2020.
World number one, Odunayo Adekuoroye is the only Nigerian wrestler that has qualified Tokyo Games following her bronze-winning performance at the 2019 World Championships in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan and Lambo said the federation will try as much as possible to have more athletes qualify for the event.
“It was a huge experience, our athletes defended their titles. The girls and boys did well. We prepared them to defend their titles which they did. They even surpassed the last outing. After spending three days in Istanbul, thank God we are here today.
“The level of competition was so tough but our athletes tried, particularly John Emmanuel in the 74kg. He had a very strict competition but we thank God he won gold medal, likewise others too.
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“This competition is a partway for our qualification series which will take place in March in Morocco. So if you don’t attend this one, you will not be able to attend the qualifier.
“Thank God they went and they have done wonderfully well.
“Right now we are focusing on the qualifier and we hope to have more athIetes qualify in Morocco,” Lambu told Sportinglife.ng.