By OLUWASEYI ODUNEYE-OGUNWOMOJU

The Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) on Wednesday said the overseas camping stage of its wrestlers’ preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics will begin on Monday in Saarbrucken, Germany.

Daniel Igali, the President of NWF, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan that this would follow the ongoing local camping in Yenagoa which will end on Sunday.

“Preparations for the Olympics are in top gear. We’ve been in camp in Yenagoa for over two weeks, and training so far is going on so well.

“We have five Olympics-bound athletes and three training partners each in camp.

“The lone male among the Olympics-bound wrestlers is not in camp yet, and that is Ashton Mutuwa who is based in the U.S.

“Already, Adekuoroye who is also based in the U.S. has now joined us. Mutuwa will join in the overseas camp because of his peculiar situation.

“He has very good training partners in the US, and we want that to continue because we’re quite happy with his training situation there, which we are monitoring very closely,” he said.

Igali assured that Mutuwa was being monitored closely and so far the NWF was impressed with what he was doing.

He also said Adekuoroye has done a lot of training in respect of pace and strengthening.

“We believe that she has good training partners here in Nigeria that will really get her fortified for the Olympics, because we have a lot of hope on her at this Olympics,” the NWF President said.

He disclosed that while the wrestlers were expected to camp in Germany for three weeks, the federation was hopeful that they would be there till July ending.

“This is because we won’t start competing until Aug. 5, and we would like to go to the Games Village four days to our events,” Igali said.

The NWF President added that the situation meant they have to do the right things from now till the end of the training period since the wrestling events would begin on Aug. 5.

Speaking also, Purity Akuh, the head coach of the female wrestling team, said the athletes and their training partners were in their preparation phase and working so hard.

He said his expectations as the coach was for every one of the qualified athletes to win medals at the Olympic Games.

NAN reports that six wrestlers will represent the country at the Games, with the team having five female and one male.

The team has Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Blessing Oborodudu in the 68kg category, Odunayo Adekuoroye in the 57kg and Hannah Reuben in the 76kg —- all being female.

There are also Christiana Ogunsanya in the 62kg and Esther Kolawole in the 62kg, while the lone male is Ashton Mutuwa who will compete in the 125kg category. (NAN)

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