African champion, Blessing Onyebuchi (+70kg), has capped a memorable outing for Nigeria at the inaugural, ANOC World Beach Games in Doha, Qatar with a gold medal in beach wrestling.
Emeka Dennar, Media Officer, Nigeria Wrestling Federation said on Wednesday in Port Harcourt that Onyebuchi, on the last day of the competition overpowered Ecuador’s Rosangela Reasco Valdez 3-0 in a one-sided final in the over 70kg category to land a historic gold for Nigeria.
Dennar said the Edo-born wrestler had earlier defeated Iryna Pasichnyk of Ukraine 3-2 in the semi-finals to book a place in the gold medal bout.
According to him, the African champion also demolished Aysegul Ozbege of Turkey 4-0 and outclassed Brazilian Aline Ferraira 3-0 in the previous rounds.
“Earlier on Monday, Nigeria’s other representative at the competition, Mercy Genesis narrowly lost 3-2 to Brazilian Kamila Barbosa Vito Da Silva to settle for silver in the 50kg class.
“Multiple African champion Genesis had already defeated Da Silva 4-2 in the group stage, but fell short in the final.
“Their performance in Doha is a testament to Nigeria’s growing prowess in wrestling globally,” Dennar said in a statement.
It said that the game took place at the famous Katara Beach, Doha in Qatar.
The Nigerian Team to the Games that ended participation in its events left that country on Tuesday, a day to the closing and are due back in the country on Wednesday night.
