Ranking Series: Nigeria wrestling team cancels Italy trip, shifts focus to African C’ships, Olympic Qualifier

.Wrestlers to resume closed-camping March 7

By Akeem Lawal

 

NIGERIA wrestlers will not be participating at the United World Wrestling (UWW) ranking series event — Matteo Pellicone in Rome following the refusal of the Italian Embassy to grant them visa for the competition.

Nigeria trio of World Wrestling silver medalist, Odunayo Adekuoroye; nine-time African champion, Blessing Oborududu and Commonwealth Champion, Aminat Adeniyi were expected to be part of 362 wrestlers from 32 countries for the three-day wrestling extravaganza.

At the last edition of the event, Adekuoroye defeated Anshu Anshu of India 10-0 via a technical knockout and clinch gold in the 57kg, while Oborududu settled for bronze in the 68kg after beating Alina Berezhna Stadnik Makhynia of Ukraine in the bronze medal match.

Adekuoroye is the only Nigerian wrestler to have qualified for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games which runs from 23rd July to 8th August this year and the Ranking Series in Rome would have afforded others the opportunity to contest for crucial points which will boost their seeding at the Olympics. 

The tournament is also expected to put the wrestlers in good shape prior to the Africa/Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament from 2nd to 4th April ahead of 2021 African Championships from 6th – 11th April, both in El Jadida, Morocco.

Coach of Nigeria's women wrestling national team Akuh Purity informed Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com that the team has shifted attention to the back-to-back competitions in Morocco after they could not secure visa to Italy.

“Up till now, we’ve not heard from the Italian Embassy. So we have decided to cancel the trip and focus on the Olympic qualifier and the African Championship in Morocco. 

“Our failure to attend the competition in Rome will have a lot of impact because we need to expose the wrestlers before the qualification. Since we could not attend, the only thing we could do now is to invite wrestlers who are in the same weight category for a couple of matches. This will complement their preparation. We are also going to monitor our wrestlers and also monitor their potential opponents even though we don’t think they would have much challenge in Africa.

“All the wrestlers are in camp presently and they will continue with their training at our camps in Akure and Bayelsa. The wrestling team will then move to Yenagoa, Bayelsa for closed-camping from the 7th of March till when we depart for Morocco for the qualifier and the African Championship,” Purity told Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com.