Igali pledges financial support to top 10 wrestlers

PRESIDENT of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) Hon. Daniel Igali has pledged financial support to the top 10 wrestlers in the country as a way of alleviating their transportation difficulties.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the athletes have not attended any competition since February, after their participation at the African Championships in Algiers, Algeria.

Each of the top 10 wrestlers, who are preparing for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifying tournament in Morocco next March, is expected to get N10, 000 monthly from the NWF boss to cushion the economic effect of Covid-19.

Only world number two and Commonwealth Champion Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg) has qualified for the Tokyo Games, with the NWF hoping that no fewer than seven more wrestlers will join her in Japan next year.

“Well, I decided to give a token of ten thousand naira (each) as transport palliative to the athletes, obviously because of the ongoing situation in the country,” the World and Olympic champion said. “And often times I’ve heard that most of our athletes have problems even paying transport fares to training.

“These are very dire times, it’s getting to crunch times for us. The athletes are soon going to be in a position to qualify for the Olympics. So, I just felt we should extend a little bit of help to them to ease their transport difficulties. That’s all.

“It’s something I always do. I normally do it, but not at this scale. I just want to extend it to a few more of them.”