Team Nigeria’s Emmanuel John Ogbonna won his third consecutive continental gold medal on the final day of competition at the 2019 African Senior Wrestling Championships in Hammamet, Tunisia, while Melvin Bibo and Ekereme Agiomor each claimed bronze medal.
Fighting in the final 74kg category, the former World number 1 in the 70kg weight category overcame home-boy Maher Ghanmi 7-1 to claim the ultimate prize.
In the 79kg class, 2018 African champion Agiomor settled for bronze after easily beating his South African opponent Zander Geringer 12-1 via superiority, while Commonwealth silver medalist and veteran Bibo also won bronze with a 7-0 thrashing of Senegal’s Blaise Diatta.
Multiple African champions Amas Daniel (65kg) and Welson Ebikewenimo (57kg) were, however, unsuccessful in their attempts to win medals.
Nigeria thus finished 5th in the men’s freestyle with 63 points, behind winners Tunisia (183pts), Egypt (180pts), Algeria (117pts) and Morocco (90pts).
The performance of Nigeria’s male team in the freestyle event capped a brilliant outing for the country’s 16-man team competition who won a total of 13 medals (6 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze), with the women claiming an impressive 9 medals on the penultimate day of the competition.
