Consolidation And Consistency : Adeniyi Reflects On His Reign As NWF President After Alexandria Showcase
The President Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, has once again stated with a clear vision of consolidating on existing structure of his predecessor, particularly the dominance of Nigerian women wrestling and bridging the gap of their male counterpart
Adeniyi Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, hinged the statement on the successful and dominant outing of the women team in Alexandria and the potentials within the men’s freestyle.
Reflecting on the overall performance of Team Nigeria, the NWF boss told journalists that the victory was as a result of consolidating on the country’s comparative advantage which is the women wrestling while building a strong base for the men to hit on like their women counterpart.
He maintained that the Wrestling Federation will build on the achievements of the boys in Alexandria after they won 6 medals out of the 8 male athletes that travelled to Egypt.
“What we have done with the boys shows that we can do better than what we have done before. So, we would go back to re-strategize and see how we can build on this success with the boys.”
“With the women we are not going to relent, we continue to improve on what we have and also bring up younger ones to ensure we remain number one in Africa while we eye the world stage.” He said.
Speaking on the championship triumph for the women that extended their record 15th African Wrestling title, the NWF President expressed overwhelming joy, noting that it was one of his major objectives when he was elected as the Federation President.
“I’m indeed very delighted, when I became President I promised that we are not starting from zero, that we would be building on what we met on ground and I’m happy we are doing exactly that.”
“We are taking it as a responsibility to Nigerians that having conquered Africa through the women and made this massive improvement with the men, the world is now the next stage for us and we will do our best to keep flying the country’s flag with pride and dignity.” Adeniyi stated.
Meanwhile, the women ended the championship with 8 gold medals and 2 silver out of 10 medals available to compete for, extending their African Wrestling Championships to 15, a record that no Nigerian sport has at the continental or world stage.
In the men’s category, 1 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze were won, earning the country a podium finish at the Championship.
High performances at the Championship for Nigeria can be attributed to Harrison ONOVWIOMOGBOHWO’heroic display, putting brakes on Egypt’s dominance, defeating Mohamed SALAHELDIN (EGY) 10-4 to win the gold medal in the 97kg category.
Also, in the 62kg Esther KOLAWOLE won all four of her round-robin bouts with ease. She outscored all her opponents 40-0, winning all four bouts through technical superiority.
