Nigeria’s
Odunayo Adekuoroye, who is rated as the world third best wrestler in
the women 57kg category, yesterday picked a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
ticket through her berth in the semifinals of the ongoing 2019 Senior
World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
To
secure her Olympics spot, the 2017 world silver-medallist overwhelmed
North Korea’s In Sun Jong 12-2 via technical superiority in the
quarterfinals, after easily beating her opponents in the previous
rounds.
However, the back-to-back Commonwealth champion will
contest for a bronze medal, as she lost 6-1 to two-time World and
Olympic champion, Risako Kawai of Japan in the semifinal.
Today’s
bronze medal match between Adekuoroye and a yet-to-determined opponent
is slated for around 1.00 p.m. Nigerian time (6pm in Kazakhstan).
Victory will hand the 25-year-old her second bronze medal at the World
Championships following her 2015 feat in Las Vegas, USA.
Meanwhile,
in the 76kg category, Nigeria’s Blessing Onyebuchi has a chance of
claiming a bronze medal, as she fights in the repechage against Aline da
Silva Ferreira of Brazil today.
The reigning African champion
lost to eventual finalist Hiroe Minagawa Suzuki of Japan 10-7 after
comfortably leading 7-0 in the their qualification round bout.Elsewhere,
African Games gold-medallist, Mercy Genesis (50kg) missed out of a
chance to book an Olympic ticket from the World Championships, as she
lost 9-9 via passivity to India’s Seema Seema in the repechage.
Team
Nigeria’s other representatives at the global showpiece, Blessing
Oborududu (68kg), Aminat Adeniyi (62kg) and Emmanuel Ogbonna (74kg) will
all begin their quest for glory and Olympic tickets today.All top six
athletes in their respective weight classes at the tournament will
automatically qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
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