PRESIDENT of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Daniel Igali, says he is hopeful that the wrestlers in camp will do well at the next month’s African Wrestling Championship in Egypt, which also serves as preparation for the pre-Olympics trials coming up in Algeria.

Igali, while briefing The Guardian on the coming events and the federation’s state of preparedness, said: “We have the African championship coming up in Egypt and this is quite significant as it also doubles as the pre-Olympic qualification tournament.

“The implication of this is that any athlete that does not go to this tournament and feature in any weight class will not also participate in any weight class at the Olympics qualifiers coming up in Algeria at the end of March.

“Being in camp now has been a tremendous thing and it is of enormous importance to us. We had hoped the National Sports Commission would call the wrestlers to camp in the middle of January but that did not happen. So the federation felt the need to do it on its own.”

Explaining the federation’s decision to hold the camp in Yenogoa, Bayelsa, Igali, who is also the chairman, Technical and Development Commission of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, said: “The athletes are now in camp in Yenogoa. This place is more convenient for me because of my job and for the fact that I also train with them regularly. They have been in camp now for more than two weeks preparing rigorously for both the African Championship and the pre-Olympics qualifiers.”

Igali revealed that Odunayo Adekuoroye by virtue of her bronze medal at last year’s Senior World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada would not participate in the qualifiers.

According to him, “Since Adekuoroye has qualified for the Olympics as a world bronze medalist, we are arranging for her to train abroad for about six weeks for the Rio Olympics before she returns to join others for the final preparation. We are hopeful about our chances of qualification in the qualifiers and doing well at the Olympics.”