Female Captain of the Nigeria Taekwondo Team to the All African Games, Chinazum Nwosu, has delivered the first gold medal for Team Nigeria at the on-going All African Games in Morocco.
The golden girl achieved this feat by defeating hosts and number one seed, Morocco’s El Bouchti Oumaima 26 – 22. In earlier bouts, the Nigerian who was the number three seed for the tournament has defeated Ethiopia’s Gosaye Fikado 14 – 12 in the semi-finals and Kenya’s Wangari Mwangi 28 – 9 in the quarterfinals en route to clinching her maiden African title.
Nwosu, an undergraduate of the University of Port Harcourt who is also an officer with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps [NSCDC] narrowly missed out on a gold medal at the 2015 All African Games, having lost in the finals by golden point to Egypt. Last year, she won a bronze at the 2018 African Taekwondo Championships losing to Tunisia’s Ben Ali.
Nonetheless, the explosive Nigerian has been one of the country’s most consistent taekwondo competitors, who has been undefeated in Nigeria for the past six years.
She won gold at the 2019 National Trials, 2019 Nigeria Taekwondo International Open, 2018 National Sports Festival, 2017 Ghana International Open and is a defending champion of the past six editions of the Korean Ambassador’s Cup in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Sunday Onofe competing in male
-87kg for Nigeria, won bronze medal after losing 12 – 15 to the number one seed, Gbane Seydou of Cote D’Ivoire in the semi-finals.
In the male +87kg, Nigeria’s Benjamin Okuomose defeated Senegal’s Seye Laye 40 – 37 before crashing out 31 – 10 to current world taekwondo champion, Niger Republic’s Abdoulrazak Alfaga, to settle for another bronze medal for Nigeria.
BY: FIRDAUSI MUSA DANTSOHO
