Sports Festival: Igali thrilled with impressive outing by states

President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation Hon. Daniel Igali says he is impressed with the performance of states in the 19th National Sports Festival which ends Sunday in Abuja.
Igali said he is happy other states outside the power houses, Bayelsa, Ondo Delta won medals.
“It’s been very exciting,” the Olympic champion said, when asked of his impression of Women’s Wrestling at the Festival.
“My happiness stems from the fact that so many states have won medals here. At the last count, about 15 different states have won medals. Edo, Osun, Plateau, Cross River, Kogi and others won medals and that tells you the spread of wrestling in the country.
Meanwhile, Team Ondo won 4 of the 10 gold medals available in Women’s category following the conclusion of Day 2 of action at the Velodrome.
Commonwealth champions Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg) and Aminat Adeniyi (62kg), African champion Sunmisola Balogun (65kg) and Esther Kolawole (55kg) accounted for the gold medals, with Patience Kakanda (Bayelsa), Tiebri Precious (Bayelsa), Biogos Ebi (Bayelsa) and Rita Driver (Cross River) all settling for silver.
In the 50kg class, Team Bayelsa’s Mercy Genesis won gold at the expense of Team Kogi’s Idris Kadijat. The reigning African champion wasted no time in dispatching her unfancied opponent 11-0 via technical superiority.
After upsetting African champion Bose Samuel (Ondo) in the earlier round, Team Anambra’s Rosemary Nweke eventually won gold following 2-2 (last point won) score against Mercy Bassey of Cross River, while Ifeoma Nwoye (Anambra) won a keenly contested battle of African Champions with Bisola Makunjuola (Ondo) 5-2 to claim a deserved gold medal.
Elsewhere, 8-time African champion and Commonwealth gold medallist Blessing Oborududu (Bayelsa) strolled to gold, after making light work of her opponents in four round-robin matches in the 68kg weight class.
In the 72kg, Hannah Reuben of the Nigeria Army (Lagos) overcame fellow soldier Winnie Gofit (Delta) to claim the gold medal at stake in the final, while Commonwealth silver medallist Blessing Onyebuchi (Edo) beat Rhoda Shonde (Rivers) to claim gold in the 76kg category.
In the Greco Roman event earlier on Thursday, Team Delta almost made it a clean sweep of gold, winning 4 of the 6 available.
Nwalue Dominic (55kg), Pakistan Alfred (63kg), Nworie Emmanuel (72kg) and Okeke Okeke (77kg) are the gold medallists for Team Delta, while Onia Dick (Rivers) and Idowu Ladoja (Ondo) won gold in the 60kg and 87kg categories respectively.