The four-man contingent of Team Nigeria to the sambo event of the 13th African Games claimed one gold, one silver and one bronze medals for their efforts at the championships.
Sambo, which is one of the seven demonstration sports among the 30-sports discipline listed for the games had Nigeria competing against teams from Algeria, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic (CAR), Cameroon, Congo DR, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Niger Republic, Togo and host – Ghana.
It was James Chegwam that first earned a bronze medal for Nigeria in the men’s (58kg) while Jonah Kajido narrowly missed out from the podium in the men’s 79kg, after losing to his Moroccan counterpart.
However, Charity Jatau was flawless in all her fights that she claimed the first gold medal for Nigeria after winning her fight bout against her Egyptian opponent in the women’s 59kg but her compatriot – Fatima Ogbonyomi had to settle for silver in the women’s 65kg.
A delighted Vice President of the Sambo Association of Nigeria, Sheriff Hammed described the performance of the athletes as a pointer to the potential that Nigeria possessed in the sport. “We came with four athletes, and we are returning with three medals, and this goes to show that there is more potential in the sport if we continue to promote and grow the sport. These medals would motivate us to work harder to grow the sport and we believe this set of athletes would inspire others to embrace the sport. We are excited and we hope Sambo will officially be recognised by the organisers of the African Games in subsequent editions while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will consider the sport for future Olympic Games,” Hammed said.
Hammed, who is also the Joint Secretary of Africa, International Association of Combative Sports (IACS), said participating in the games has given the athletes the opportunity to showcase their talents despite the uniqueness of the sport, being one of the fast-growing sports in the world.
