After days of competition, the inaugural edition of National Junior Taekwondo Championship came to a close on Thursday in Abuja, FCT with Team Delta topping the medals’ table.
Delta got a total of eight medals, made up of four gold, three silver and one bronze to beat Team FCT to the second position. FCT had four medals made up of two gold, one silver and one bronze, just Ebonyi State, was third with two medals comprising Two gold medals.
Benue state came fourth with one gold and one bronze, while Taraba state finished fifth on the table with a total of two medals made up of one gold and one bronze.
Nasarawa and Akwa Ibom states placed joint sixth place with one gold medal apiece, while Abia state with two silver and seven bronze finished eight place.
Borno, Bayelsa and Lagos states won one silver medal respectively to finish at joint ninth position as Zamfara state and KinNupe Taekwondo Federation are twelfth position with one bronze medals respectively.
Two time National Youth Games champion, Chidinma Nwankwo narrowly beat another Youth Games champion, Happiness Adirimo 35-34 points in the Women’s 49kg at the first ever Junior Championship.
Nwankwo who left the – 46kg for – 49kg, earlier lost to Adirimo in the preliminary round before squaring up in the final.
Another intense bout was between Daniel Asuquo of Akwa Ibom and Okonkwo Chukwuka of Delta State as the fight ended 24-22 points in favor of the Akwa Ibom athlete.
Coach of Team Delta, Moses Nwulia praised the organisers for making the athletes compete with one another after the 2017 National Youth Games.
“This is what some of us had clamoured for. The athletes need to compete against each other to know their strengths and weaknesses. I hope this continues”, he said
