John ODHE, Yenagoa
The Nigerian Wrestling Federation has unveiled eleven wrestling athletes that will represent the country at the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth games which is being held in Birmingham, England.
Unveiling the team in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital, the President of the Nigerian Wrestling Federation, Mr. Baraladei Igali said the wrestling team was made up of six female and four male athletes, three coaches as well as other technical officials.
Igali, who is also the Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development in Bayelsa state, said the ten wrestlers were carefully selected to represent the country at the ongoing commonwealth games, expressing hope that the athletes would do the nation proud at the world tournament, stressing that the athletes were subjected to a 3-month rigorous training.
The 1998 Olympic gold medallist thanked the governor and deputy governor of Bayelsa state on their continuous support for sports development in the state as well as the Minister for Sports, Mr Sunday Dare for encouraging the wrestling federation by always acceding to their requests.
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“I believe that all the ten selected athletes are capable of winning medals at the 2022 commonwealth games. At the last commonwealth games in 2018, we went with eleven athletes and we won eleven medals and I am praying for these ones that luck shines on them that as they go there, they wrestle to the best of their ability and come back home with medals,” he said, asserting that the wrestling federation was the best performing federations in Nigeria.
In a goodwill message, the chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa state, Mr. Kia Nigeria, promised to award one million naira to each of the four wrestlers drawn from Bayelsa state if they returned with gold medals, adding that Sylva and gold medallists would go home with N500,000 and N300,000 each respectively.
One of the Birmingham bound wrestling athletes, Miss Blessing Oburudu, a Bayelsa indigene, who won the first female wrestling gold medal for Nigeria in 2018, vowed to defend her championship with all her strength at the 2022 edition of the commonwealth tournament.
The wrestling contingent is expected to be airlifted from Nigeria to Birmingham on July 31st, 2022.
