Femi Solaja
In fulfilment of the promise it made before the Games, the Chinese Community in Nigeria last weekend rewarded all the Kung Fu medalists at the last Edo 2020 National Sports Festival.
At a colorful ceremony held in Lagos and jointly organised by the Nigeria Huaxing Art Troupe/Wushu Development Association of Nigeria, the Chairman of Chinese Industrial and Commercial Entrepreneur Association, Dr Eric Ni, said the reward to the athletes was the confirmation of good relationship that has existed between China and Nigeria.
Although Kung Fu was a non-scoring event that made its debut at the national multi-sport event last March, the monetary reward were given to the six best performers at the Festival.
Among the recipient of the cash award include; Oluremi Phillip Adedokun, Austin Esther Douye, Shittu Modinat, Iyanu Okiki Oladele, Eweje Yusuf Leye and Nwobilor Francis Tochukwu.
Gold medallists were given N200,000 while silver medal winner and bronze winners smiled home with N150,000 and N100,000 respectively.
During the presentation ceremony, Mr. Ni explained that it is the wish of the Chinese Community to continue to reward Nigerian youths in talent development and groom them to be among the best in the world.
“We have been in Nigeria for almost 60 years and meaning we are together in nation’s building programmes for such a long time. We want to help build youths of the nation both in sports and cultural development.
Former Olympic champion, Chioma Ajuwa, who was invited to give motivational talk to the athletes commended Mr. Ni for the initiative stressing that the youths of today are privileged to enjoy such donations as against her own developmental stage.
She urged the youths to take advantage given to them by the Chinese Community to development themselves and achieve greater goals both in sports and education.
Aside the monetary reward, the Chinese Community also donated sporting equipment to the Kung Fu Federation.
