BEVERLY HILLS, April 04, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian representation to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics gained some impressive additions from the ongoing Africa/Oceania Olympic qualifiers in Hammamet, Tunisia, as Commonwealth wrestling champions Blessing Oborududu (68kg) and Aminat Adeniyi (62kg), and debutant youngster Adijat Idris (50kg), all secured qualification to compete for Nigeria.
Oborududu, who is a 10-time African champion, made it look easy dispatching her Egyptian challenger Enas Ahmed and Senegal’s Anta Sambou.
Her 13-2 and 10-0 victories via technical superiority respectively, combined with a 4-0 victory against Tunisian Khadija Jlassi to guarantee her a slot in what will be her third Olympics
Adeniyi’s path to Tokyo 2020 was just as dominating because the four-time African champion brushed aside Algeria’s Amel Hammiche 7-0 demolished Zineb Hassoune of Morocco 10-0 via technical superiority and overpowered Cameroon’s Berthe Ngolle 3-0.
Although she lost 3-1 to her great rival, Tunisian Olympic bronze-medalist Marwa Amri in a keenly contested bout, Adeniyi still secured her place at the Games alongside Amri.
As for Nigeria’s teenage sensation, Idris established herself as a force to reckon with at her debut on the big stage. Her eye-catching performances easily earned the 19-year-old a slot at the Olympics at her first time of asking.
Given her tactics, it was easy to see why. She delivered two technical superiority wins against Egypt’s Nada Mohamed and Debora Ture of Guinea Bissau, scoring 11-0 and 15-4 respectively. Then, she dispatched Algeria’s Ibtissem Doudou in her third round-robin match of the competition.
The only blip in her overall performance was a 2-1 loss to Tunisian Sarra Hamdi. However, Idris, who claimed gold at the Baraza Champion of Champions Wrestling tournament in Yenagoa in January, advanced to her maiden Olympics together with Hamdi.
However, there was to be no perfect ending for Team Nigeria as Bose Samuel was stopped via pinfall to lose 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the 53kg category by her Cameroonian rival Joseph Essombe Tiako. Samuel finished with a bronze medal, which was not good enough to earn the 2018 African champion qualification to Tokyo at the Tunisian event.
The good news is that Oborududu, Adeniyi and Idris will thus join former World number one Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg), who sealed her place with a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, to the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games, scheduled from July 23 to August 8.
The Tunisia-hosted competition comes to an end on Sunday, with the men taking to the mats in the Freestyle events and Team Nigeria’s Amas Daniel (65kg), Ogbonna John (74kg), Soso Tamarau (97kg) Ekerekeme Agiomor (86kg) and Ebikewenimo Welson (57kg) will be hoping to join the ladies by punching their own tickets with victories.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
