COMMONWEALTH champion, Odunayo Adekuoroye has dedicated
the bronze medal she won at the ongoing 2019 Senior Wrestling World
Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan to her late in-law, Remilekun Adekuoroye.
Late Remilekun, the wife of Odunayo’s elder brother,
Temidayo Adekuoroye, died on Tuesday after a brief illness and the news was
broken to the five-time African champion just before her semi-final match which
she lost to eventual champion Risako Kawai of Japan.
The World No. 3 in the 57 kg category outclassed
Moldova’s Anastasia Nichita 10-0 via technical superiority in the bronze medal
match on Thursday to add to the bronze and silver medals she won in the
competition in 2015 (USA) and 2017 (France) respectively.
In an interview with United World Wrestling after her
victory, the 25-year-old went emotional while breaking the sad event.
“Two days ago, I heard the news that my brother’s wife
died. So as I was crying, before the match, the husband called me and said that
the only gift I can give to her is for me to wrestle well and dedicate the
medal to her. May her soul rest in peace. I dedicate my medal to you and God,”
she said while trying to hold back tears in her eyes,” she said.
While celebrating her third medal in the history of the
competition, the five-time African champion said, “As you can see, we (Nigeria)
came here with five girls and a male, who hasn’t got any medal, so it was like
I really need to make my country proud.
“I am so very happy because everyone is my fan and they
have been wishing me well even before I qualified. So I am so very glad that I
did not put them to shame. I’m happy.
“For my coach Akuh Purity, I know he is proud of me now,
and I am so very proud of him for training me.”
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