By Victor Kanayo
Gabon, Chad and Guinea finished without any medal at the just concluded 12th African Armwrestling Championships held in Accra, Ghana.
Nigeria’s Medal Haul
However, Nigeria scooped 33 medals at the end and picked ticket to the 2023 World Combat Games scheduled for Saudi Arabia.
That was after two Nigerian women Armwrestlers performed brilliantly at the continental competition.
The athletes are Mauzi Zaanu in the 55kg class, who defeated Ghana’s Rachael Lankai in a playoff battle for the World Combat Sports Games.
Olubisi Oyewusi had earlier qualified for the World Combat Games in the Women’s 90kg Class, after beating Ghana’s Alberta Ampomah.
The duo qualified as Africa’s Ultimate Champions in their various categories.
Placements
Meanwhile, Team Nigeria Armwrestling team has emerged overall third placed team.
Team Nigeria that went into the 12th African Championships as defending Champions after winning the 11th edition in Lagos, won a total of 33 medals made up of 10 gold, nine silver and 14 bronze medals to finish third place with 247 points in Accra.
Host Ghana, emerged new Africa champions with 47 gold, 55 silver and 30 bronze medals with 1088 points.
Egypt were place second with 282 points after winning 25 gold and 4 silver medals.
Another strong African Armwrestling country, Mali, finished in fourth position with 9 gold, three silver and two bronze medals, while Senegal finished fifth position with two gold and three silver medals.
Cameroun finished sixth position with two gold and two silver medals, while Benin Republic were seventh with two gold medals. And Sierra Leone, in eighth position got two gold medals and Madagascar in ninth position got one gold and three bronze medals.
Other participating countries like Togo got zero gold but got two silver and three bronze medal, Ivory Coast won one bronze medal.