Four Nigerian Wrestlers have earned spots for the Paris Olympic Games by achieving gold medals at the African/Oceania Olympic Qualifiers in Alexandria, Egypt, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
According to United World Wrestling, the finalists in each weight category are expected to qualify for the Olympic Games meaning these four wrestlers finished among the top two boxers in their categories.
Odunayo Adekuoroye had secured qualification to Paris last year following her bronze medal win in women’s 57kg at the World Championships in Belgrade.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist Blessing Oborududu secured her place at the 2024 Paris Olympics after a 2-0 pinfall victory over Uilau Tarkong of Palau in the 68kg Women’s category.
World Military champion Hannah Reuben 76kg defeated Amy Youin of Ivory Coast 6-0 to secure an Olympic slot adding to her African Games gold medal won in Accra, Ghana.
Esther Kolawole joined the Nigerian list of athletes going to France after she overcame Angelina Rodrigues of Cape Verde with a 10-0 superiority to add to her African Games and African Championships triumph.
Fellow African Games champion Christiana Ogunsanya overcame Egyptian Shaimaa Mohamed with a 10-0 superiority in the 53kg Women’s event to secure Paris Games qualification.
Meanwhile, Mercy Genesis narrowly missed out qualification for the Paris Olympics as she suffered a 5-7 defeat to Nada Mohamed of Egypt in the 50kg weight class.
Nigerian male freestyle wrestlers hope to secure Olympic slots when they compete on Sunday, the final day of this window’s qualifiers.
Meanwhile, the remaining Olympic slots will be decided in May 9-12 at the 2024 World Qualification Tournament Istanbul, Turkey, offering three quota places per weight category to the two highest-ranked wrestlers and the champion of a wrestle-off between two bronze medalists.
