President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) Daniel Igali has called for early and adequate preparation for the country’s wrestlers ahead of the 12th African Games in Rabat, Morocco, which will be staged from August 19 to 31 this year.
The World and Olympic champion is confident wrestling can deliver no fewer than 10 gold medals for Team Nigeria at the Games given early camping for the athletes.
After overcoming financial difficulties in March, Igali led a contingent of 16 Nigerian wrestlers to the 2019 Africa Senior Wrestling Championships in Hammamet, Tunisia, where they won a total of 13 medals including six gold, two silver and five bronze medals, with the female team voted the best at the tournament.
โWe must start preparing right away,โ the Bayelsa State Lawmaker advised. โFrom what I saw at the African Championships, the females have the capacity to win between seven and eight gold medals. If we prepare from now, I can almost guarantee that we will win about seven or eight gold medals with the women alone.
โI also see the possibility of winning about four gold medals in the men, that takes us to over 10 gold medals which is about our target for this Games.
โSo, that gives me a lot of course for optimism. I am very optimistic that if we prepare well, and that is depending on our preparations, if we start our preparation now, because we are about three solid months away from the Games, if we start our preparation in terms of the physical training now, and then we go to the specifics in June, and tipper off in July, then, by August I think we will be fine to go and do the country proud.โ
Nigeria won the wrestling event at the last Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo four years ago, claiming 19 medals comprising nine gold, five silver and five bronze.
