With three athletes, Nigeria made its presence count at the 18th African Sambo Championships with five medals to show for their efforts at the three-day championships held at the Cairo International Stadium in Egypt.
The athletes who were medallists at the last African Games in Ghana showed class against their counterparts from 21 other African countries with Charity Jatau claiming the only gold medal for Nigeria in the women’s 59kg.
Jatau, African Games gold medallist was not intimidated by the home crowd in the final against Egypt’s Ragar Alaa as she floored her opponent 5-2 to claim Nigeria’s first gold and medal at the continental championships.
On the same day, Fatima Ogbonyomi worked her way to the final, but she was unlucky to add another gold as she fell to Morocco’s Wissal 3-0 to settle for silver in the women’s 65kg division.
The only male athlete in the team, James Chegwam worked his way to the final from bronze medal in African games after defeating his opponents from Togo and Congo DRC in his first two fights only to lose the gold medal to his Moroccan counterpart and settle for silver in the men’s 58kg.
The duo of Jatau and Chegwam added two bronze medals after settling for bronze in the beach Sambo on Monday, June 3.
