President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, has assured wrestling fans that his board will consolidate on the existing structure set up by his predecessor, particularly the dominance in women’s wrestling and also lift the men’s team.
 
Adeniyi, who is also the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), hinged the statement on the dominant outing of the women’s team at the just-concluded African Wrestling Championships in Alexandria, Egypt and the potential within the men’s freestyle team.
 
Reflecting on the overall performance of Team Nigeria, the NWF boss said that the victory was a result of consolidating on the country’s comparative advantage, which is in women’s wrestling, while building a strong base for the men.
 
He maintained that the federation will build on the achievements of the boys in Alexandria after they won six medals out of the eight male athletes who travelled to Egypt.
 
“What we have done with the boys shows that we can do better than what we have done before. So, we would go back to re-strategise and see how we can build on this success with the boy.
 
“With the women, we are not going to relent, we continue to improve on what we have and also bring up younger ones to ensure we remain number one in Africa while we eye the world stage,” he said.
 
The NWF president was elated at the country’s performance in Egypt, noting that it was one of his major objectives when he became the federation’s president.
 
“When I became president, I promised that we would not start from zero; that we would be building on what we met on the ground, and I’m happy we are doing exactly that.
 
“We are taking it as a responsibility to Nigerians that having conquered Africa through the women and made this massive improvement with the men, the world is now the next stage for us, and we will do our best to keep flying the country’s flag with pride and dignity,” Adeniyi stated.
 
At the African Championships in Egypt, Nigeria’s women topped the table with eight gold and two silver medals out of the 10 categories, extending their championships record to 15, a record no Nigerian sport has ever achieved at the continental or world stage.
 
The men won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
 
Among the top performers was Harrison Onovwiomogbohwo, whose heroic display put the brakes on Egypt’s dominance in the men’s class. He defeated Egypt’s Mohamed Salaheldin 10-4 to win the gold medal in the 97kg category.
 
In the women’s 62kg class, Esther Kolawole won all four of her round-robin bouts with ease. She outscored all her opponents 40-0, winning all four bouts through technical superiority.