African Championships: Coach Purity Confident of Nigeria’s Dominance in Women Wrestling

African Championships: Coach Purity Confident of Nigeria’s Dominance in Women Wrestling

By Niyi Busari

Head coach of Nigeria’s women wrestling team Purity Akuh says he is ‘confident’ his wards will once again exert their dominance on the continent at the 2020 African Wrestling Championships in Algiers, Algeria.

Nigeria’s female wrestlers have won the Women Wrestling event in the last eight years, and will be hoping to extend their record in the tournament which runs from 4^th to 9^th February in the North African nation.

The Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) has already named a full team of 10 female wrestlers in all the available weight classes, as well as 5 males for the competition, which serves as a pre-Olympic qualifier.

“I am confident by the special grace of God that we will make it nine in a row, this year will make it nine years in a row of winning the female title,” the seasoned coach told NWF Media.

“I am confident because we started preparation very early this year, even late last year in December we commenced preparation. You can recall that we were in Rome (for the Ranking Series tournament earlier this month), where we won one gold and one bronze medal.

“So, that shows we have been preparing early enough. So, the early preparation, I think it is going to work for us, and I’m sure we are going to bring back the title.

“And I really want to thank the federation for making it a complete team for the female. That gives me so much assurance that we’ll bring back the title,” he concluded.

In Algiers, Purity will be counting on the brilliance of 9-time African champion Blessing Oborududu (68kg), five-time winners Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg) and Aminat Adeniyi (62kg), as well as reigning champions Mercy Genesis (50kg), Sunmisola Balogun (72kg) and Blessing Onyebuchi (76kg), to rule the continent again.

At the last African Championships in Hammamet, Tunisia in 2019, the Nigerian women claimed 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals to emerge overall champions in Women Wrestling.