Nigeria ended the 2017 Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in South Africa on Sunday with one gold, two silver and one bronze.
Five wrestlers Kemasuodei Dressman , Winnie Gofit , Blessing Oborududu , Aminat Adeniyi and Soso Tamarau represented the country at the competition.
African champion Dressman won Nigeria ’s only gold at the championships, which began on Friday in Brakpan. Dressman defeated India ’s Pooja Pooja 6 -0 in women ’ s 76 kg .
In the 68 kg female category, Oborududu on Saturday won silver after losing a bout out of 10 . Oborududu ’s last fight was against India ’ s Monia Monia, who beat her 6 -0 .
Gofit also won silver after losing 5 -4 to Kiran Kiran of India in the women ’s 72 kg weight category , while 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Adeniyi won bronze in the women ’ s 62 kg .
Nigeria ’s only male wrestler at the event Tamarau lost his fights on Sunday to India ’ s Mausam Khatri in the semifinal of the men ’s 97 kg freestyle and South Africa ’s Martin Erasmus in the third- place bout .
President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation , Daniel Igali , who spoke with our correspondent online , said Tamarau’s mistakes would be corrected ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia .
He said he was satisfied with the performance of the women wrestlers at the championships.
Igali said, “ Soso gave away cheap points in his fight and I have told him that he needed to work hard before the Games next year . That is the advantage of competitions such as this . The mistakes have been noted and work will start in earnest to ensure that he gets better .
“ For the women , I am proud of them because they just left the national championships in Port Harcourt and they were able to give a good account of themselves here (South Africa ) .
“ I believe that with more investment in the sport , Nigeria can rule the world . India came with more than 30 wrestlers but we couldn’t do same because of the funds involved .”
As of press time , India dominated the competition with 11 gold , 10 silver and six bronze .
