In a bid to consolidate on its achievements last year, the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) has rolled out a robust programme of activities for 2022.
In a historic 2021, 10-time African champion and Commonwealth gold medalist, Blessing Oborududu became the country’s first- ever medal winner at the Olympics, claiming silver in the 68kg category at the Tokyo 2020 Games, while 19-year-old African Champion, Esther Kolawole, also made history by winning a bronze medal at the U-23 World Champion- ships in Belgrade, Serbia in November – the first Nigerian wrestler to achieve that feat.
Speaking through its President, Daniel Igali, the NWF informed that plans are underway for Nigerian wrestlers to participate in a national championship – the Gov. Douye Diri Wrestling Classics and a lot of international tournaments to get their athletes ready for the challenges ahead.
“This is another big year for us,” the World and Olympic champion said. “We are going to start up the year with a couple of international tournaments in France and in Italy.
“The one in Italy (Mat- teo Pellicone) is a Ranking Series tournament. We also have another one in Istanbul (Yasar Dogu), a Ranking Series tournament, in February. And then, in the later part of March, we would have the Gov. Douye Diri National Wrestling Classics, and that’s what we will use tochoosethenationalteam that will represent us at the African Championships that will be taking place in Morocco in May.”