Tokyo Olympics bound athlete, Elizabeth Anyanacho and 8 others will compete at the African Taekwondo Championships.
The 2021 Africa Taekwondo Championships will take place from 5th to 6th June, 2021 in Dakar, Senegal.
The tournament with a World Taekwondo G-4 ranking will be the most important competitive event on the African continent before the Tokyo 2020 Olympics kicks off in July.
The continent’s top ranked event will provide an important competitive experience for the 22-year-old Elizabeth, who became the first woman in 16 years to qualify for the Olympics when she beat Gabon’s Urgence Mouega 12 to 6 points in the crucial qualifying match to clinch the Tokyo 2020 Olympic ticket in Feb 2020.
2016 Olympic Bronze medallist, Ruth Gbagi of Cote D’ivoire as well as two times All African Games Champion, Hedaya Malek of Egypt are expected to participate at the tournament, setting up a potential showdown between Africa’s representatives at the Tokyo Olympics in the female -67kg category.
Other women’s athlete competing includes former African Champions, Uzoamaka Otuadinma in the female middleweight category and Chinazum Nwosu in the female bantamweight category as well as former African Bronze Medalists Ifeoma Dennis in the female heavyweight category and Vivian Ndu in the female lightweight category.
In the men’s category, 2014 Commonwealth gold medalist Shola Olowookere and 2019 All African Gold Medalist Benjamin Okuomose are also registered for the tourney, alongside current National Champions Abdulmujeeb Sanusi in male flyweight category and Abdulateef Arinola in male fin weight category.
Elizabeth will be looking to donors to raise funds to attend the tournament while her teammates will be counting on their states, after their gold medal winning exploits at the just concluded Edo 2021 Sports Festival.
