We’re not going to Azerbaijan to make up numbers – Oborududu

As the continent’s best ranked wrestlers, Oborududu and Odunayo Adekuoroye will represent Nigeria at the end-of-year UWW-organised Golden Grand Prix in Baku and the team is expected to be led by the Secretary-General of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF), Segun Oguntade as well as the handler of the team, Purity Akuh and a medical personnel.

Oborududu, a quarter-finalist at the 2012 London Olympic Games will be competing in the 63kg of the women’s freestyle event while her compatriot, Adekuoroye will battle for honours in the 53kg of the women’s freestyle as well.

A confident Oborududu told SportingLife yesterday that she would be going to Baku not to add up the number of participants but hopes to make it to the podium.

"My target is to make it to the medal spot because I don’t just want to go there and make up the numbers. It is high time I asserted myself at the global level because I have dominated the game in Africa and I must also prove myself at the global stage,” she said.

However, the 300 level undergraduate of the Niger Delta University will contend with top wrestlers like Russia’s Valeria Lazinskaya, European Games champion; Ukraine’s Yulia tkach , 2014 world champion; Belarus’ Maria Mamashuk, 2014 European runner-up and Latvia’s Anastasija Grigorjeva, who is double European champion.

Like Oborududu, Adekuoroye, who has already booked her place in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games after finishing third at the 2015 World Championship, is optimistic that they can replicate the feat they achieved at the 2015 African Games in Baku.

Like her compatriot, Adekuoroye will face a herculean task as she has to battle for laurels against 12 times world champion, Japan’s Saori Yoshida; and two-times runner’s up at the world championship, Sweden’s Sofia Mattsson and double Asian champion, China’s Zhong Xuechun.

Twenty-four events will be competed for at the tournament taking place at the Baku Sports Hall with the winner in each event carting home $10,000 while runner’s up get $5,000. The third place athletes will get $2,000 each. For coaching the eventual winners, the coaches of the winners will get $2,000 for their efforts.

 

(thenationonlineng.net)