Nigeria so far have won seven gold, three silver and five bronze medals in the Cadet Category event to lead the medals table after the Day One of the 2018 African Wrestling Championship holding at the Alfred Diete-Spiff Civic Centre in Port Harcourt.
The gold medalist are Sunmisola Idowu Balogun (65kg), Tolu Ogunsanya (46kg), Yetunde Oluwatoyin (40kg), Esther Kolawole (61kg), Cecilia James (68kg) and Mercy Adekuoroye (53kg) in the Women’s Wrestling, while the only gold medal in Greco Roman was won by Ukoro Peter (55kg).
The wrestlers have all qualified for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games that will hold in Buenos Aires, Argentina later this year.
In the Women’s wrestling 53kg, Mercy Adekuoroye, a niece to World Wrestling silver medalist, Odunayo Adekuoroye, defeated Soud Bouksir of Algeria 10-0 to secure the gold medal.
In the 65kg, Sunmisola Balogun came from behind to beat lanky Natasha Nabaina of Cameroon 5-4 in a tight final.
She defeated Chaimae Taibi of Morocco 10-0 in the semi final after overpowering Natasha Nabaina 2-0 in the first round and South Africa’s Charmone Oosthuizen 11-0 in Round 2.
Tolulope Ogunsanya won her gold by defeating Lamia Rtibi of Tunisia 10-0 in the 46kg weight class.
Natasha Essien gave the country the only silver medal in the Women’s Wretling 73kg weight class, while Esther Asaolu (43kg) and Aina Ohida (49kg) won bronze medals in the category.
In the Greco Roman, Ukoro Peter delivered gold for Nigeria by beating Omar Abdelaziz 4-0 in the final of the 55kg class. He defeated Lu Shawn Leonico of South Africa in the semi final. He defeated Linus Katujanda of Namibia 15-7 in Round One before beating Yassine Jaa of Morocco 8-0 in Round 2.
Perediegha Ogidi won silver in the Greco Roman 48kg. He defeated Mervin Eixab of Namibia 9-3 in Round One but lost 6-4 to Mohamed Dridi in the second match.
Ntem Moses Ifiok also won a silver medal in the GR 65kg class. In the GR 51kg, Damilola Gabriel Fayolemi defeated Yassine Chekly of Morocco in the bronze medal match.
The other two bronze medals in Greco Roman were won by Yahaya Yahuza (92kg) and Ikechukwu Robinson (60kg).
Egypt is second on the table with four gold, three silver and six bronze medals, while Tunisia is third with four gold, two silver and a bronze medal.
Algeria is in the fourth position on the table with three gold, two silver and two bronze medals and are followed by Cameroon with two silver medals.
South Africa is in the sixth position with one silver and four bronze medals, while Namibia won just one bronze medal to take the seventh position on the table.
