By Monica Iheakam

Team Nigeria wrestlers and their counterparts from around the world will wrestle for their Paris 2024 Olympic tickets in Belgrade.

The United World Wrestling (UWW) Bureau this week stripped the hosting rights for the championships from Russia and handed it over to Belgrade in compliance to the advice from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that international events should not be held in Russia or Belarus because of the war in Ukraine.

Related News

Next year’s World Wrestling Championships will be a key qualification event for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

According to the UWW, Azerbaijan and Turkey had also expressed interest in staging the World Championships but the Bureau voted for Belgrade.

Blessing Oborodudu won silver, Nigeria’s first ever wrestling Olympic medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.