African Champion, Uzoamaka Otuadinma and 2014 Commonwealth Youth Gold Medallist, Isah Adamu, have been awarded Olympic Scholarships by the International Olympic Committee through the Nigeria Olympic Committee, which is expected to last until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Otuadinma and Adamu were chosen based on their current rankings on the continent at the time and their performance at international events over the past three years.
Uzoamaka Otuadinma is the current Africa Champion and also won a silver at the 2017 Korea International Open while US-based Isah Adamu Abubakar, was the 2014 Commonwealth Youth Gold Medalists and also won the 2016 World Taekwondo President Cup and 2017 Costa Rica Open.
Reacting to the scholarship, the athletes promised to make the best of it to achieve their Olympic dreams.
For Otuadinma, “it is hard to be competitive because we cannot afford to travel to compete or pay for the training but this scholarship eases that burden and it would help me to defend my African title in 2019 and to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
For Abubakar, “this IOC scholarship has motivated me more than ever and I thank the Nigeria Olympic Committee and Nigeria Taekwondo Federation for working hard to bring this kind of good support for my Olympic dream”
The Olympic qualifiers for Africa in the Taekwondo event will be held in January 2020
