.Igali eyes more slots at World Tourney
By Akeem Lawal
President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation Daniel Igali has hinted on plans to engage the services of a foreign coach to prepare the wrestlers ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
Igali revealed this to Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com on
Tuesday at the Murtala International Airport, Lagos on arrival of the wrestling
contingent from Tunisia, where the team secured four more Olympic tickets at
the just concluded Africa/Oceania Olympic Qualifiers in Hammamet.
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| Nigeria wrestling contingent on arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Tuesday. |
Ekerekeme Agiomor (86kg), Blessing Oborududu (68kg), Aminat Adeniyi (62kg) and teenager Adijat Idris (50kg) joined already qualified Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg) to the global sports fiesta.
Igali, who hopes to secure more Olympic slots for his wrestlers at the 2021 World Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament billed to hold in Sofia, Bulgaria from May 6–9, 2021, believes with adequate preparations, the wrestlers are guaranteed podium finish at the Games.
“Five slots qualified by the Nigeria Wrestling Federation and that’s what is important. Even for the women, I expected to qualify all six. Blessing Onyebuchi got injured and will be completely out for four months. But we are still planning to send somebody to Bulgaria to qualify 53kg because we have the capability to even qualify at the world level and maybe even have an opportunity for a medal in that class at the Olympics. We are also looking at one or two other men that will go to Bulgaria for qualification.
“I would be having some discussions with the minister; there are one or two things I saw that I think we can improve on. I may likely bring in somebody, a coach to support the team I have, even if it’s for six weeks, before the Olympics and I already have someone in mind. A coach that will come and booster the team and work on some deficiencies that I see because I don’t really have the time. I go and support them and do whatever I can. At least I spend about 30 minutes with them almost at every training session, but I don’t have the necessary and required time to maximize the effort.
"So I’m going to look at having a discussion with the minister to bring somebody. But I have a good feeling that Oborududu and Adekuoroye have come of age, they are probably more poised to win than I am. It is not by luck that they are both ranked No.2 in the world in their weight class; it is from several competitions they’ve attended. So I am resting quite comfortably, knowing that if we do the right things, these athletes will not be under pressure, but will be comfortably going into the Olympics and wrestle to make Nigeria proud.
“The National Sports Festival going on in Benin is also a preparatory ground for them. After that we will give them one week and after that they will converge back in Bayelsa for one very intensive month of training. It is within that time that I am thinking of bringing somebody in. Either at the end of May or very early June, we would have Governor Douye Diri National Wrestling Classics in Bayelsa, which would probably be their last competition on home soil.
“We have a competition in Romania, a Ranking Series Tournament that we have already booked for them to compete before they travel. There is also a training camp in Europe that I’m looking at, maybe for about 10 days. I don’t want to expose them too much because we would be working on specifics that we need to work on before they go. I can assure you that if what we propose is accepted, we would be ready for the Olympics,”Igali assured Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com.
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