President of The Nigeria Fencing Federation (TNFF), Adeyinka Samuel , said the country is ready to host a befitting World Fencing Championships in September.
Coming on the heels of successful hosting of the African Fencing Championships on two previous occasions in 2018 and 2022 (last February), Samuel said Nigerian Fencing as the TNFF is commonly known, will once again pull all the stops to host the rest of the world, adding the body is finalizing all arrangements towards a hitch free competition.
“ We have been awarded the right to host the World Fencing Championships between September 10 and 11 and unlike in all other sport, this is more or less a life-long hosting rights as we are also gong to host the event in 2023,”Samuel said in Lagos yesterday.“ So, it’s important for us to host the world championships successfully so that the International Fencing Federation can allow us to be hosting the annual event as long as we can.”
Samuel further disclosed that the two-day combat sport championships will hold at the Continental Hotel in Victoria Island, explaining that the championships is another opportunity to boost the status of Lagos as a sporting capital even as he rallied support from both the Lagos State government and Corporate Nigeria for Nigerian Fencing.
“Apart from the northern African countries like Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, no sub-Saharan African countries have hosted the world championships and I think this is a big plus for Nigeria Fencing and that is why we are appealing to Lagos State (through the Lagos Sports Commission) as well as individual and corporate citizens to support our efforts,” he further said. “Very soon, I believe fencing will command huge respect and followership in Nigeria as much as Lagos City Marathon consequently we are bringing everyone on board in order to have a successful event.”
According to the two-time Commonwealth Gold medallist in Fencing, the world championships will be an open event for the men to fight for honours in both the individual and team events strictly using the Epee equipment.