Three wrestlers to fly Nigeria’s flag at world tourney

The Nigeria Wrestling Federation has confirmed that the country will be represented by just three athletes at the 2020 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, the Serbian capital from December 12 to 20.

This follows The Punch report last week that there was uncertainty around the team attending the tournament due to lack of funds.

According to a statement by the federation, sports minister, Sunday Dare, has approved the federation’s bid to have wrestlers at the competition but only three female athletes and a coach will make the contingent.

World Championships silver and bronze medalist, Odunayo Adekuoroye will lead the pack as well as African champions, Aminat Adeniji and Blessing Okorodudu.

The trio will be led by head coach of the female national team Purity Akuh.

The number is a decline on those that attended previous events. Six athletes represented the country at the 2017 event in Paris while the country was also represented by six athletes at the 2019 event in Nur-Sultan – the capital city of Kazakhstan.

In Belgrade, world no. 2 Adekuoroye will be gunning for a 4th World Championships medal, having won a silver in 2017 and two bronze medals in 2015 and 2019 while 10-time African champion Oborududu, and 5-time African Champion Adeniyi, would hope to land their first medal at the global event.

It marks a return to wrestling for Team Nigeria, who last competed at the African Championships in Algiers.