Over the weekend, the famous Henri Deglane Grand Prix competition took place in the French city of Nice with Christianah Tolulope Ogunsanya, Esther Omolayo Kolawole, and Mercy Bolafunoluwa Adekuoroye representing Nigeria.
The wrestling event held in memory of France’s 1924 Olympic gold medalist Henri Deglane was supposed to be held in January 2022 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it opened the international wrestling season for 2023 with top athletes from host France, USA, Canada, Poland, Germany among others.
It started on Friday with the women’s wrestling event, continued on Saturday with the freestyle, and concluded on Sunday with the Greco-Roman.
Following Nigeria’s impressive performance at the tournament, where they finished with two medals—one gold and one bronze—Afrosport spoke with Nigeria’s wrestling head coach, Purity Akuh to discuss the team’s future plans.
When asked about Nigeria’s performance at the tournament, he said he was satisfied and grateful for the government’s intervention in making their participation possible.
“It was a fantastic one; we had two medals, one gold and one bronze; Esther Kolawole won bronze in the 62kg event while Christiannah Ogunsanya won gold in the 50kg event, and we thank God for that,” he said.
“We had a lot of challenges due to the funding, but we want to appreciate the president of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Dr. Daniel Igali, and the Ondo State government for making our participation in the event possible.
“Our performance level has improved because we were given a stern challenge. At the last Olympic event, Blessing Oborududu won us a silver medal and we have a lot of ranking series won by the reliable Odunayo Adekuoroye.
“This time around, we decided to give the young wrestlers a chance. For example, we brought along the younger sister of Odunayo in Mercy, Esther Kolawole won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games and Ogunsanya competed in the 50kg event and won a gold medal here in France,” he added.
Akuh, a national champion at the 2004 Abuja National Sports Festival, discussed the significance of the competition in France and the exposure the trio, who represented Nigeria, received from participation.
“We used this as a preparation for the African and World Championships which act as a qualifier for the Olympic Games,” he continued.
“The African championship is in May and for the first Olympic qualifiers in Serbia we want to have enough wrestlers to qualify heading into the competition.
“Next month, we will go for ranking series in Egypt, then Grand Prix in Spain then we get ready for the African Wrestling Championships in Tunisia to win our title back, especially for the female team.”
The former wrestler feels the sport is growing gradually in Nigeria with a host of natural talents, but he believes there is still issues of funding.
“Of course, we have naturally talented athletes. Do not forget that we have traditional wrestling tournaments, all we have to do is invest and harness these talents and expose them to the international scenery and I think the popularity is increasing,” Akuh said.
“Our only challenge is still funding and the president is working on that. We need a lot of support from the private bodies too.”
