President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) Hon. Daniel Igali has restated his resolve to ensure the country’s wrestlers get ‘adequate’ preparation ahead of the forth-coming Olympic Qualifiers and African Championships both in El Jadida, Morocco.
In preparation for both tournaments, the NWF boss disclosed that A 3-week intensive camping will commence in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital on 6th March.
During the camping exercise in Yenagoa, the World and Olympic champion hinted that there would be a mini-tournament to put the wrestlers in tip-top shape before their departure to Morocco.
“As we’ve maintained, we will ensure that our athletes are adequately prepared for the Olympic qualifying tournament and also the African Championships, which follows right after,” the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Youth and Sports said.
“So, we’ll bring in about two training partners (per athlete) or the two second and third athletes from different states and have a mini-wrestling competition in the camp to ensure that every athlete has between five and six matches over a two-day period to get them slightly have their heads turned around in a competitive mood.”
At the Olympic qualifying tournament in El Jadida, Team Nigeria will be hoping to pick no fewer than seven tickets to the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games in Japan, which will run from 23rd July to 8th August.
At the moment, former world number one and back-to-back Commonwealth champion Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg) is the only Nigerian wrestler to have qualified for the Tokyo Games.