For the first time in the history of the Olympics, Nigeria will not be represented in the taekwondo event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, in August, as all the country’s taekwondo athletes failed to pick ticket to compete in the world’s biggest sports showpiece.
Nigeria’s fighters crashed out in the semi-finals of the African Championship held in Morocco, which was used as the qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games. Uzoamaka Otuadinma and silver medallist Chinazum Nwosu, in their various semi-finals’ fights lost narrowly to their opponents from the host country, Morocco.
Another Nigerian fighter, E. Samson, lost to his opponent from Senegal, in a technical knockout in the second round, when a kick to his mouth gave him a deep cut that forced the referee to stop the contest and awarded it to his opponent. One of Nigeria’s top taekwondo athletes, Jamilu, who was a pre-tournament favourite to pick a ticket to the Rio Olympics, was sadly disqualified on Friday for being overweight.
Olympic bronze medallist, Chika Chukwumerije, who was present at the venue of the Olympic qualifiers, disclosed to www.freedomonline.com.ng earlier on in the championship, that to get to the semi-finals, Samson, defeated his opponents from Togo and Algeria, while Chinazum in his category defeated opponents from Ethiopia.
Uzoamaka, in his own fight, beat his opponent from Swaziland.
In the category which Uzoamaka and Chinazum fought, Nigeria was stopped by the same Morocco at previous African Championships ahead of the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Eight African countries have picked tickets to represent their nations in the Rio Olympic Games in August. They are: DR Congo, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Niger Republic.
