Blessing Oborududu has become the first Nigerian to win a medal in wrestling in the Olympic games after securing a silver in the women’s freestyle 68kg wrestling category.
The 32-year-old Nigerian achieved the feat after losing 4-1 to USA’s Tamyra Stock-Mensah in the final on Tuesday.
She also won the first silver medal for Nigeria in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Ese Brume won Nigeria’s first medal — a bronze — at the games.
Oborududu had qualified for the final after outwrestling Elis Manolova of Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova in the preceding rounds.
In Athletics, Divine Oduduru couldn’t book a place in the men’s 200 meters final after he finished third in the first heat with a disappointing 20.16 seconds.
He was beaten to the automatic qualification spots by Erriyon Knighton of the USA, who clocked 20.02 seconds, followed by Jamaica’s Rasheed Dwyer, who took second with 20.13 seconds.
The Nigerian had to wait for the conclusion of the two other heats before his fate was decided.
Unfortunately for Oduduru, Lyles Noah of the USA and Trinidad and Tobago’s Richard Jereem finished 19.99 and 20.10 respectively to book the remaining spots in the finals.
In a similar development, Nigeria’s George Patience Okon finished seventh in the first heat of round one of the women’s 400 meters race.
She clocked 52.41 seconds which wasn’t good enough to see her progress in the competition.
In the same vein, Aminat Adeniyi was beaten by Iryna Koliadenko of Ukraine in the preliminary stage of the women’s 62kg freestyle wrestling event.
The 28-year-old Nigerian was leading 4-2 before the Ukrainian pulled a surprise pinfall to upturn the game.
