John stars as Nigerian men win four medals on final day

Agency Reporter

Nigerian freestyle wrestlers capped what can best be described as a remarkable outing for the country at the 2020 Africa Wrestling Championships in Algiers by winning four medals including a fourth consecutive continental gold for rising star Emmanuel Ogbonna John in the 74kg class as the competition ended on Sunday.

John won his fourth African Championships title by overcoming home boy Ishak Boukhors 5-1 in the final to climb to number seven in the World ranking.

“This is called back-to-back-to-back-to-back. God has done it again; I give all the glory to Him. It is not by my power, it’s not by my strength, but it is by the Grace of God,” John said after his win.

He added: “Like you know, I am the current African champion, so, I know everybody is preparing for me.

So, I trained harder to make sure that I retain my title, and I have done that.

Meanwhile, Amas Daniel will continue his search for a 6th African title after losing 4-2 to 2019 champion Mbunde Mbali of Guinea Bissau to settle for silver in a tough finale in the 67kg class. The Team Nigeria captain required treatment on the mat after suffering a cut on his ear in the encounter.

Former champions Ekerekeme Agiomor (86kg) and Soso Tamarau (97kg) both won bronze medals.

Their result in Algiers showed an improvement from 2019, where they won three medals; a gold and two bronze, in Hammamet, Tunisia.

Overall, Team Nigeria won a total of 14 medals – 7 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze at the event with all but one of the 15 wrestlers that represented the country at the competition returning home with a medal.

The team is expected back in Nigeria today.

In a related development, Minister of Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare has reiterated that the impressive performance of Nigerian wrestlers in recent outings has strengthened the hope for Nigeria medal haul in wrestling at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

He stated this during an inspection tour of the Wrestling Gym in Bayelsa State.

The Minister said he was excited to be in Bayelsa State to identify with wrestling as one of the country’s most successful Sports.

He congratulated the team that competed in Algiers for an incredible performance and commended the President and the board members of the Nigerian Wrestling Federation (NWF) for their foresight and commitment to the project, even as thanked the Bayelsa government for providing the grant  to complete the Gym.

He promised that the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development would partner the state government to make the Gym a befitting theatre of wrestling for Nigerian.