Finally Team Nigeria has won a medal at the on-going Tokyo Olympics thanks to Blessing Oborodudu, who won her semi-final bout against Mongolia’s Battsetseg Soronzonbold in the women’s 68kg, Completesports.com reports.
Oborodudu overcame Soronzonbold 7-2 to land a first ever medal for Nigeria in wrestling at the Olympics.
Also Read: Done Deal: Onyekuru Joins Olympiacos On Four-Year Contract
Soronzonbold won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and two gold medals at the 2010 and 2015 World Championships.
Oborodudu is now guaranteed a gold or silver in the final and will take on 28-year-old Tamyra Mensah from USA on Tuesday.
Mensah, who won bronze and gold at the World Championships in 2018 and 2019 respectively, beat Ukraine’s Alla Cherkasova 10-4 in the other semi-final.
By James Agberebi
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COMMENTS
Finally, something to cheer about….! 1 silver guaranteed at least.
Nigerian athletes succeed IN SPITE of the administrators, not because of them. And I am glad our athletes and sportsmen are beginning to come out and speak up, not minding the consequences.
Here’s an excerpt of the cry of yet another gallant ambassador of the country, Basketballer Chimezie Metu.
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“It’s extremely difficult to go out there and focus on the basketball game when you’re dealing with so much stuff off the court. For a lot of the athletes that are here to represent Nigeria, we love our country and we’re ready to risk all and put all on the line. But the Olympic Committee of Nigeria make it extremely difficult for us to go out there and just focus on performing. I’m not just talking about basketball, I’m talking about the track and field, also. I’m pretty sure everybody’s heard about the 10 track athletes that have been disqualified and they had nothing to do with it. It was a lack of attention to detail and lack of empathy for the hard work that’s been put in by us athletes, by the Committee, as well as the Government”.
“….for 60-something athletes to come out here and fly halfway across the world, and then be disrespected and humiliated by a country… That’s something that I’m pretty sure none of us can stand for. I can thank coach Mike Brown because he’s put a lot on the line for us. He had his staff, they traveled halfway across the world, took a 30-hour trip from where we were in Oakland, California – it was supposed to be a 10-hour trip. Ended up being a 30-hour trip because it’s like I said, the lack of attention to detail by our Government and our Olympic Committee to go out there and try to make it as easy as possible for us to perform. Half of his staff couldn’t even come into the Olympic Village with us. It was an extremely difficult first few days for us, we had to practice with no coach! With no coach before we played Australia, one of the best teams in the world! I just feel like I have to bring attention to that, and try to use this platform to speak out against it. It’s not just the basketball team. We have like 60-something athletes here, and every single one of us has had a hard time since we’ve been here. We walk around the village and we see other countries, and see how they’re living and how everything is going so smooth for them. Man, what I would give to just… All of us would die for our country. We put it on the line, every last one of us. They make it extremely difficult to go out there and want to represent Nigeria. But you know, over and over again we continue to do it. I would want to use this time just to ask that the Government and the Olympic Committee just adjust the amount of stress and everything they’re putting on us athletes that are coming to represent Nigeria time in and time out. They make it extremely difficult. The game is what it was, but that’s secondary to me at this point”.
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If all these complaints left, right and centre are not an indictment on the sports ministry…..I wonder what is…?
The funny thing is that the next Olympics is in 3 years time, and guess what…..these nonsense(s) will still be there…It has always been, since the days of Francis Obikwelu, Mercy Nku, Gloria Alozie, Onyali and others.
Sports cannot exist in isolation of the general malaise in the society. To live in Nigeria you have to pray that you never need the system to work for you; ’cause it will most likely fail. The security system, educational system, legal system, healthcare system etc. have all failed.
Sports is not isolated. All that we achieve is tangential to functioning of the Nigerian system.
Haaaaaaaaallleluuuuuu. Hallelujah. To GOD BE THE GLORY. And may God continue to bless Oborodudu mightily as well as bless all athletes representing our beloved Nigeria; even despite all the difficulties brought against them by self serving BUNCH OF IDIOTS CALLING THEMSELVES SPORTS ADMINISTRATORS. TIMID BRAIN DEAD ANIMALS WEARING SUITS AND AGBADA THINKING THEY ARE REGARDED IN THE SPHERES THE CIVILIZED WORLD.