Samuel expresses satisfaction with ongoing African Fencing Championship
President of Nigeria Fencing Federation, Adeyinka Samuel has described the ongoing 23rd African Fencing Championship as a huge success considering the quality of the competition and the large turn out of athletes from several countries across the continent participating in the championship.
The event which kicked off Wednesday at the Charterhouse, Lekki, Ajah, Lagos attracted the best fencers from the continent and Samuel is hopeful, that the successes recorded will help in further development of the sport in the country.
” I want to tell you that the championship is a very successful one because all the top athletes in the continent are here and that’s what we want to showcase. We also have the whole executive committee members of African Confederation around as well as the members of the international Federation with representatives of the World President and Secretary General which is a very big one for us in Nigeria.
On the performance of Nigerian athletes after Day one of the competition, he was emphatic that they’re doing well considering that they’re contesting against the best athletes in the world even as he expressed optimism that the country will pick at least two medals at the end of hostilities on Sunday.
” Our athletes are doing well when you consider that they’re contesting against the world best in various categories. Right here, we have Olympic silver and bronze medalists, World number one, World Junior number one, World silver medalist and many others. We also have our own athlete who is ranked number 22 in the world.
” So, I think the level of competition here is very high but am optimistic that we are going to pick at least two medals at the end of the day”, he sounded confidently.
Samuel promised that the Federation under his watch will leverage on the successes recorded to continue championing grassroots development of the sport which he said led to the invitation of some schools to the championship.
” I want to assure you that we’ll continue to champion grassroots development of Fencing and that was why we invited some schools; some of them are already on our fencing programme while others are not. The idea is for those already on our programme to get more exposure and acquainted to the rules of the game while it will enable the new ones develop interest in fencing.
The Fencing boss who said his target in the next five years, is to create more awareness about the sport as well as boost medal prospects of the country, promised that they will continue spreading the gospel of fencing around the country
