President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Daniel Igali has cleared the air on the discrepancies over Nigeria’s medal haul at the African Wrestling Championship in Marrakech, Morocco.
Igali told www.brila.net that the combined gold medal won by Nigeria‘s grapplers totaled eight on Sunday after the male wrestlers added to the six picked by their female counterparts on Saturday.
As at the time of publishing this story, a contrary report is posted on the official website for the championships: https://unitedworldwrestling.org/DataBase .
The ‘Data Base’ for the grapplers who made the podium shows that the senior women’s contingent won two golds, three silvers and a bronze medal, all on Saturday in Marrakech.
On Sunday, according to the site, Three Male grapplers in the Free Style seniors picked gold, to increase Nigeria’s tally.
That account thus brings the 16-man contingent’s haul to five gold, three silver and a bronze.
But to corroborate Igali‘s account, a further report on the same website stated that :
” Nigeria grabbed six of the eight gold medals in the women’s wrestling competition, highlighted by titles from Blessing Oborududu (63kg) and Odunayo Adekuoroye (55kg).
Oborududu, a two-time Olympian and Commonwealth Games silver medalist, won her seventh title at the African Championships. She had three technical falls and a fall at 63kg.
World No.7 Adekuoroye, a 2015 world bronze medalist, used two technical falls and a fall en route to the gold medal at 55kg.
Nigeria’s other gold medalists in women’s wrestling were Miesinnei Genesis (48kg), Aminat Adeniyi (58kg), Dressman Kemasuodei (69kg) and Winnie Gofit (75kg).
Genesis, an Olympian and All Africa Games champion, recorded three falls and a technical fall to win the gold medal at 48kg. Adeniyi did not surrender a point in earning two technical falls at 58 kg.”
Hence, the contingent picked eight gold and two silver medals at the Championships.
The team arrived Nigeria early hours on Monday after the conclusion of events in Marrakech on Sunday.
