By Victor Kanayo
The Taekwondo Community in Nigeria has been thrown into mourning following the sudden death of a young athlete identified as Maria Raphael.
Heritage Times HT gathered that Raphael who resides in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, North-central Nigeria died a day after she was involved in a ghastly accident on Friday August 26, 2022.
According to officials of the state’s Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Maria was hit by an articulated long range vehicle also known as trailer while on her way to purchase some items from a grocery store few hours after returning home from a national championship.
The Public Relations Officer of Nasarawa State Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Eche Amos who confirmed the incident said, “Words fail us as we were greeted today by the ugly news on the sudden death of one of our illustrious medal-winning athletes.
“The deceased was a committed, dedicated and focused athlete, winning medals of different categories for Nasarawa State, ranging from Cadet, Junior, and until her untimely demise, Senior Category.
“Maria brought lots of glory and honour to Nasarawa State at different sporting championships.
“Her demise is an unquantifiable loss to everyone of us at the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and Nasarawa State as a whole, while her immense contributions will be sorely missed.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with her immediate family, loved ones, fellow athletes and the sports world in general.”
At the 15th edition of the Panamai West African and Cottage Mills Taekwondo Championship held in August in Lagos, Nigeria, the late Maria was one of the athletes who inspired her Team to finish 4th on the medals’ table as she won a Bronze medal in the -46kg Women’s Category at the Championship.
She also won silver medal at the recently concluded National Open Taekwondo Championships held between August 21 and 24, 2022, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa South-South Nigeria.
