It was a harvest of upsets at the Indoor Sport Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan the venue of Senior Open Judo Championship where new champions emerged in all the categories in a tourney that ended over the weekend.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps won the well attended four-day tournament organised by the Nigeria Judo Federation (NJF) while the Nigerian Police Force and athletes from Rivers State finished first and second runners-up respectively.
The results signed by Mohammed Aliyu, NJF’s Technical Committee Secretary showed that Vivian Okoh of Nigerian Police and Esther Sule of Kogi State, won gold medals in the women’s +78kg class, while Mba Chinwe from Anambra and Chioma Ezenwoke of Nigerian Army won silver. Winnie Gofit of Cross Rivers claimed the first spot in +70kg, while Ester Augustine of Civil Defense Corp and Ogun State’s Christiana Victor won gold in the +63 and +57Kg respectively.
In male category, Joseph David and Ralph Uba both of the Nigeria police won gold in +100 kg, while Suraju Bello and Abdul Rahman also of Civil Defense came tops in +70kg and 63kg respectively after Ika Bassey Nsa of Obafemi Awolowo University won +57kg’s Gold.
The federation’s technical committee chairman who doubles as the vice president, Dr. Musa Oshodi, told newsmen after the tourney that first to third judokas would enter close camping at the same venue immediately ahead of the forthcoming African Championship holding in Benin Republic between July 18 and 22, while the winners at the Cotonou championship will wear the country’s colour at the World Judo Championship in Brazil from August 26 to September 1.
The NJF President, Prince Timothy Nzirim who declared the event closed in his speech appealed to the media to help the federation towards reviving the sport that had been in comatose for long.
“This competition has further demonstrated the concern and commitment of the new NJF board towards improving the standard of Judo. As we continue to hold competitions in different parts of the country, I am sure that the performances of the judokas will be improved to meet up with the international standard,” Nzirim noted.
