Another Impressive Athlete Advances to Semifinal As Team Nigeria Hopeful for Olympic Medal in Wrestling

Another Impressive Athlete Advances to Semifinal As Team Nigeria Hopeful for Olympic Medal in Wrestling

  • Tokyo 2020 reaches the advanced stage and some Nigerian athletes are beginning to prove their worth at the Olympic Games
  • Blessing Oborududu is now through to the Women’s semifinal in wrestling having defeated Azerbaijani’s Elis Manolova and Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan
  • She will take on Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia in the semifinals as Team Nigeria are now hopeful of a medal

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Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria has qualified for the Women’s wrestling semifinal at the ongoing Tokyo Olympic Games, Punch reports.

The impressive athlete defeated Azerbaijani’s Elis Manolova and Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan to advance to her first Olympic semi-finals.

She edged Elis Manolova of Azerbaijan 13-2 to reach the quarter-final, and then put up another impressive fight to defeat Zhumanazarova to advance to the semi-final of the women’s wrestling freestyle 68kg event.

Another Impressive Athlete Advances to Semi-final in Wrestling As Team Nigeria Hopeful for Olympic Medal
Tokyo 2020: Blessing Oborududu celebrates victory to semis in Wrestling. Photo: Ryan Pierse
Source: Getty Images

She will face Mongolia’s Battsetseg Soronzonbold in the semifinals.

Nigerian journalist Kuti Dare has commended Oborududu for such a feat, saying the 32-year-old will win a medal for her country. He called on Nigerians to cheer the athlete to victory in her next game.

Kuti told Legit.ng:

"The performance she pulled at the Tokyo Olympics Games is incredible and all she needs is our support.
"I believe it will propel her in becoming the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal for the country.
"She has sacrificed a lot during her wrestling career dominating her category in Nigeria for the past 13 years and is also a 9-time African Wrestling Champion."

Tobi Amusan misses out on medal

Meanwhile, Tobi Amusan failed to win Nigeria's first medal at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics games after finishing fourth in the women's 100meters hurdle event.

Amusan, who did not only have a slow start but ran slowest out of her block, could only pick up the pace 50m into the race as she clocked a time of 12.60s to place 4th.

The favourite Jasmine Camacho-Quinn from Puerto Rico blew away the rest to convincingly win Gold in women's 100m hurdles clocking a time of 12.37s.

Ese Brume reaches final in Long Jump event

Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigerian athlete Ese Brume will have a chance to compete for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games medal after advancing into the final of the women’s long jump event.

The 25-year-old track field queen finished fourth in the Group B of the event after covering a distance of 6.76 metres.

Serbian long jumper Ivana Spanovic who is the reigning World Indoor champion and three-time European indoor champion finished first with a distance coverage of 7.00m.

Source: Legit.ng

Authors:
Babajide Orevba avatar

Babajide Orevba (Sports Editor) Babajide Orevba is a CAF-accredited Nigerian journalist, digital publishing expert, researcher, writer and TV analyst. He has covered several major football tournaments including FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, AFCON, CAF Competitions as well as grassroots competitions within Nigeria. Email: babajide.orevba@corp.legit.ng