Wrestling: ‘Nigeria on course to win an Olympic medal’ – Daniel Igali
President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) Hon. Daniel Igali says the long-term aim of the body is to produce an Olympic medalist for the country.
Nigeria is yet to win an Olympic medal in wrestling, and at the last Games in Brazil in 2016, seven athletes qualified for the global fiesta, though none of them was able to go beyond the first round largely due to inadequate preparation.
In a chat with NWF Media, Igali, who won a gold medal at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia while competing for Canada, believes the federation is firmly focused on producing an Olympic medalist for Team Nigeria in the nearest future.
“We’ve exposed some of our junior athletes (Sunmisola Balogun and Esther Kolawole) to the World Cadet Championships (in Zagreb, Croatia), and it did show at the African Youth Games,” the Bayelsa State Lawmaker said. “All the athletes that travelled won gold medals.
“So it shows the rapid development that can come about when you expose your athletes internationally.
“The aim of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation has always been to win a medal at the Olympics, and I think these are the building blocks to achieving that goal. And we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to do that.”
