With the wrestling event starting on Day 8 of the Commonwealth Games, Team Nigeria added to her medal tally, as three of the country’s wrestlers won medals of different colours while competing in various categories.
Blessing Onyebuchi wrestled her way to a Silver medal in the final of the women’s 76kg Freestyle after she lost out to Canada’s Erica Weibe by 4-2.
Also, the duo of Bose Samuel and Ebikewenimo Welson won Nigeria’s first Bronze medals of the competition. Samuel completely outclassed Sri Lanka’s Deepika Mudiyanselage by 10-0 technical points (victory by fall) in the Women’s Freestyle 53kg Nordic System, while Welson prevailed over South Africa’s Jan Combrinck 3-1 in the Men’s Freestyle 57kg.
Tobi Amusan proved her pre-favourite race status in the women’s 100m Hurdles as she secured her place in the final after she outran the field to win Heat 1. Amusan ran a Season’s Best (SB) of 12.73s. However, Grace Ayemoba settled for 5th place in the second heat as she posted a time of 13.59s.
In the men’s 400m Hurdles final, Riliwan Alowonle put up a decent display on his inaugural outing for Nigeria as the quarter miler placed 5th in a time of 49.80s. British Virgin Islands’ Kyron McMaster took home the GOLD medal in a time of 48.25s. Also, Glory Nathaniel finished out of the medal zone as she crossed the line in 6th place while running a time of 56.39s.
Nigeria’s sole representative in the men’s Discus throw, Stephen Mozia placed 4th in his Group B of the qualifying rounds and 6th overall in the standings.
In Table Tennis, Aruna Quadri once again showed why he is the top ranked player at the ongoing Games as he brushed past Singapore’s Xue Jie Pang 4-1 (11-5, 8-11,11-3,11-3 and 12-10) to move into the men’s Singles quarter final.
However, Segun Toriola had to retire from his round of 16 match due to a knee injury he sustained in the course of the match. He retired at 7-11, 5-9 against India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.
Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles event, Aruna Quadri and Segun Toriola both teamed up to beat Malaysia’s Choong Javen and Leong Chee Feng 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-8 and 11-5) in the Round of 16. Both players would play against Singapore in the quarterfinal.
The country’s second doubles team which comprised of Bode Abiodun and Olajide Omotayo, couldn’t progress into the quarterfinals as the duo lost 3-0 (7-11, 8-11, 3-11) to Englishmen Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford.
Faith Obazuaye recorded a 100% performance in the Women’s TT6-10 Group 2 after dispatching Canada’s Stephanie Chan 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-9). On the contrary, Temitope Ogunsanya lost 3-0 to England’s Ross Wilson who won 11-2, 11-3 and 11-3 in the Men’s TT6-10 Singles Group 2 Game 5. He therefor bows out of the tournament by virtue of the loss.
