The President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF), Adewale Adeniyi, said the world is now the next stage for Nigeria, with the women wrestlers targeting gold at the championship.
The women wrestlers recorded their 15th African Wrestling title on Saturday at the just concluded African Wrestling Championships in Alexandria, Egypt.
Adeniyi said that the overall performance of Team Nigeria at the championship was as a result of consolidating on the country’s comparative advantage, which is women wrestling.
“We are taking it as a responsibility to Nigerians that having conquered Africa through the women and made this massive improvement with the men,
‘The world is now the next stage for us and we will do our best to keep flying the country’s flag with pride and dignity,” he said.
The president said the Federation will build on the achievements of the boys in Alexandria after they won 6 medals out of the 8 male athletes who travelled to Egypt.
“What we have done with the boys shows that we can do better than what we have done before. We would go back to re-strategise and see how we can build on this success with the boys.
“With the women, we are not going to relent, we will continue to improve on what we have and also bring up younger ones to ensure we remain number one in Africa while we eye the world stage,” he said.
“I’m indeed very delighted. When I became President I promised that we are not starting from zero but building on what we met on ground and I’m happy we are doing exactly that.
The women ended the championship with eight gold medals and two silver out of 10 medals available to compete for, extending their African Wrestling Championships to 15, a record no Nigerian sport has at the continental or world stage.
In the men’s category, one gold, two silver and three bronze medals were won, earning the country a podium finish at the Championship.
The men finished third, Algeria second, Egypt and Tunisia finished third.
The team which comprised 10 female wrestlers and eight male wrestlers competed for honours in 18 events.
The 2026 African Wrestling Championships which started on April 27, ended on Saturday in Alexandria, Egypt.