African female wrestling champion, Blessing Oborududu on Monday assured Nigeria of a first medal at the ongoing Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, and it is bound to be either gold or silver.
Following a spate of off-field incidents and ill-fated happenstances that have bedeviled the Nigerian contingent over the past three days in Tokyo, the contingent had a lot to celebrate with Oborududu’s feat at the start of week.
Megasportsarena.com reports that such it had to be after Oborududu secured an assurance of Nigeria’s first medal of the 2020 Games by reaching Tuesday’s final of the women’s 68kg freestyle wrestling event.
Team Nigeria’s camp was thrown into sheer ecstasy and sports minister, Sunday Dare quickly dispatched a congratulatory message, as Oborodudu won her semi-final bout against Mongolia’s Battsetseg Soronzonbold.
Oborodudu is now guaranteed a first ever medal for Nigeria in wrestling at the Olympics, after winning 7-2 against Soronzonbold, who won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and two gold medals at the 2010 and 2015 World Wrestling Championships.
Oborodudu is now guaranteed a gold or silver in the final on Tuesday, when she takes on USA’s 28-year-old Tamyra Mensah, who won bronze and gold at the World Championships in 2018 and 2019 respectively, beat Ukraine’s Alla Cherkasova 10-4 in the other semi-final.
Her heroics came alongside a disappointing run by Grace Nzubechi Nwokocha in the women’s 200m, as she finished fourth in a new personal best, while Tobi Amusan also placed fourth in the women’s 100m final, thereby making Oborududu Nigeria’s stand-out athlete on Monday.
A chain of accolades is now trailing the Commonwealth champion Blessing Oborodudu on Monday made to the final of the wrestling event (68kg) at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, after recording an impressive 7-2 victory against 2012 bronze medallist Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia in the last four clash.
The 32-year-old Oburududu, who is competing in her third consecutive outing at the Olympics, is a graduate of Business Administration from Niger-Delta University and she has won gold at the African Wrestling Championships in every edition for the last 11 years.
The only exception was 2012, when she did not enter due to competing at London 2012 and the heroine, who becomes the first Nigerian to reach the final of a wrestling event at any edition of the Olympics, has hinted that this could be her last appearance at the Games.
Oborodudu is now inspired to gun for gold in the final, following a spate of plaudits led by Dare, who retorted: “You are a Blessing to Nigeria and Nigeria’s Athletics family. Team Nigeria is proud of you.
“Nigerians are proud of you. The display is typical of the never say die Nigerian spirit. Keep the tempo going until we reach the ultimate which is the gold.”
