African Games Champion, Esther Kolawole (OLY) defeated Viktoria Vesso (Estonia) 10-0 in the women’s 62kg to win the bronze medal at the 2024 U23 World Wrestling Championship in Albania.
Kolawole told www.aclsports.com that the bronze medal is not a compensational medal following her performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics last August.
The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist revealed that her coach (Purity Akuh) was not impressed with her performance at the U23 World Championship.
She said, “As an elite athlete, I feel great winning a bronze medal for Nigeria at the U23 World Wrestling Championship because I was the only athlete fielded. My coach (Purity Akuh) was not happy with my performance; he felt I could have won a gold medal. Still, I am grateful to God and hoping for better days.
“I want you all to know that this is not a compensational medal; I really worked hard for it. The bronze medal was a build up from the Olympic training program and after the Olympics the federation still kept pushing me. That is what gave birth to this world medal.
“The Olympic training program was good and loaded but unfortunately I did not win a medal.
“I feel I have disappointed my coach; he has impacted enough that could have made me win at the Olympics but it is what it is and I have promised myself to make him proud in my future endeavours”, she told www.aclsports.com
Kolawole noted that she will be competing at the Governor Douye Diri Wrestling Championship 2024 next November.
She said, “I will compete at the prestigious Governor Diri Wrestling Championship in Bayelsa state.
“I am still going to keep training for next year’s season to compete at the African Championships in Morocco, Ranking Series, and 2025 World Wrestling Championships.”
