Nine female and four male Nigeria wrestlers have broken into United World Wrestling (UWW) top 20 ranked wrestlers in their respective weight categories according to the latest rankings released.
The ranking was made possible due to Nigeria’s performance at the recently concluded 2019 African Wrestling Championships held in Tunisia.
Nigeria only World Silver medallist, Odunayo Adekuoroye who won all her bouts at the Africa Championship in style is now ranked number 4 in Women’s wrestling 57kg with 46 points.
Nine time African champion, Blessing Oborududu, is ranked World No.8 in the 68kg after gathering 18 points, Mercy Genesis is ranked World number 10 in the Women’s Wrestling 50kg while African champion, Blessing Onyebuchi is ranked World No. 9 with 18 points in the 76kg.
Former Africa junior champion and now Africa senior champion, Sunmisola Balogun is ranked 9th in the world in the 65kg category with 18 points, Hannah Reuben is ranked 9th in the 72kg with 16 points, while 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, Aminat Adeniyi, who also won silver at the African Championships is ranked 11th in the 62kg with 16 points.
Bronze medallists at the African Championship, Rosemary Nweke (53kg) and Ifeoma Nwoye (59kg) are both ranked 14th in their various categories with 14 points each.
Three times African champion and former number world one, John Emmanuel is ranked number 10 in the Men’s Freestyle 74kg category with 18 points, Commonwealth silver medalist, Melvin Bibo, is ranked World number 12 in the 86kg with 16 points, while bronze medallist, Ekerekeme Agiomor is ranked 15th with 14 points in the 79kg class.
For the first time in a decade, Nigeria Greco-Roman wrestler broke into the world ranking as 2015 All African Games gold medallist, Emmanuel Nworie, 72kg is ranked number 15th in the world 14 points.
