Two time Commonwealth champion, Odunayo Adekuoroye won a bronze medal at the 2019 Senior World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Adekuoroye who sealed her place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Wednesday, won her third medal in the history of the competition.
“As you can see, we (Nigeria) came here with five girls and a male, who hasn’t got any medal, so it was like I really need to make my country proud,” the 25-year-old told United World Wrestling after her victory.
“I am so very happy because everyone is my fan and they have been wishing me well even before I qualified. So I am so very glad that I did not put them to shame. I’m happy.
“For my coach Akuh Purity, I know he is proud of me now, and I am so very proud of him for training me.”
In the meantime, 9-time African champion Blessing Oborududu (68 kg) will be fighting Michelle Montague of New Zealand in the repechage on Friday, as she eyes an Olympic ticket and a possible maiden World Championships medal. If she defeats Montague, Oborududu will face Sara Dosho of Japan for a place in the bronze medal match.
However, her namesake, Blessing Onyebuchi (76kg) was unsuccessful in her bid to land a medal as she lost to China’s Qian Zhou 12-1 in the repechage, while Aminat Adeniyi (62kg) could not progress following the failure of her conqueror Ukranian Yuliia Ostapchuk to advance to the final.
