Nigerian youth female wrestler, Sunmisola Balogun is relishing her gold medal at the African Wrestling Championship in Port Harcourt, which qualifies her for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games coming up in Buenos Aires, Argentina from October 6 to 18.
The Ondo State-born wrestler came from 4-0 down to defeat Natasha Nabaina of Cameroon 5-4 in a tight final of the 65kg class, to win a gold medal for the country at the African Championship which ended in Port Harcourt yesterday.
The 17-year-old wrestler had an impressive outing in Port Harcourt, having defeated Natacha Nabaina of Cameroon 2-0 in Round 1 before beating Charmone Oosthuizen of South Africa 11-0 in Round 3 and Chaimae Taibi of Morocco 10-0 in the semifinal.
The student of C.A.C Grammar School, Ondo State promised to work harder not to disappoint Nigeria at the Youth Summer Games.
Balogun retorted: “This is my first time of participating in this championship and I am really happy to have qualified for the Youth Olympics.
“At the final, I knew I did some mistakes in the early stages of the fight due to injury. The girl attacked me and scored the points. And because I don’t want to disappoint Nigeria and my coach, I had to summon the courage and I attacked her back.
“I will continue to work hard for the Youth Games. I have to step up preparations and I promised not to disappoint the country.â€
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