Wrestling squad off to Spain for pre-Games’ championship

The Nigerian wrestling team to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will leave for Spain, today, to participate in a championship, which is part of the team’s build up to the Games, officials of the federation have said.

The squad, comprising five women and one male athlete, will arrive in Madrid today and head to Team Nigeria’s pre-Olympics camp in Saarbruken, Germany immediately after the tournament.

The wrestlers in the team are Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, Blessing Oborodudu (68kg), reigning African champion, Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg), and Military world champion, Hannah Reuben (76kg).

Also in the squad are reigning African champions and debutants, Esther Kolawole (62kg) and Ogunsanya Christinah (53kg), with the lone male star, Ashton Mutuwa (125kg freestyle) completing the squad coached by Victor Kodei, Purity Akuh and Happiness Burutu.

The tournament is an addition to the team’s plans for the Olympics, as the early programme was for the athletes to join the sports ministry’s camp in Saarbrucken, Germany on Monday.

The team has been in a camp in Yenagoa since the conclusion of the qualification tournaments two months ago.

Speaking on the team’s readiness for the Olympics, Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) President, Daniel Igali, said: “Preparations for the Olympics are in top gear. We’ve been in camp in Yenagoa for over two weeks, and training so far is going so well.

“We have five Olympics-bound athletes and three training partners each in camp.

“The lone male among the Olympics-bound wrestlers is not in camp yet, and that is Ashton Mutuwa, who is based in the U.S.

“Already, Adekuoroye, who is also based in the U.S. has now joined us. Mutuwa will join the overseas camp because of his peculiar situation.

“He has very good training partners in the US, and we want that to continue because we’re quite happy with his training situation there, which we are monitoring very closely.”

Igali assured that Mutuwa was being monitored closely and so far, the NWF was impressed with what he was doing.

He also said Adekuoroye has done a lot of training in respect of pace and strengthening. We believe that she has good training partners here in Nigeria that will really get her fortified for the Olympics, because we have a lot of hope on her at this Olympics,” the NWF President said.