Nigerian sports minister, Mr Sunday Dare, has hailed the feat achieved by Nigerian female Taekwondo athlete, Elizabeth Ayanacho, after she emerged as the first female in Nigeria to pick an Olympic ticket for Taekwondo in 16 years, and also became only the second-ever female Taekwondo Olympian for Nigeria. Another Nigerian female athlete to be applauded by the minister is table tennis player, Offiong Edem after she also sealed a spot for Nigerian table tennis in the biggest sporting event in the globe. The minister noted that both athletes’ qualification gives hope that the West African nation will have a decent outing in Japan later this year.
Read more about Sports
20-year-old Anyanacho is currently a 300 level undergraduate student of Statistics at the Federal University of Technology Owerri, she is Nigeria’s female taekwondo national champion and equally had a nice outing at 2019 All Africa Games. While Edem sealed Olympic qualification after booking a place at the final of the International Table Tennis Federation Africa Top 16 Cup, beating Henry Yousra in the process.
Sign up to the Connect Nigeria daily newsletter
Mr Dare went further to stress how imperative it is to identify and nurture athletes at a very young age as Anyanacho is already making history at the age of 20 because she had been part of an active high-performance taekwondo programme in Nigeria which is aimed at nurturing and producing world champions and taekwondo Olympians since she was 15.
Source:
Complete Sports
Featured Image Source: ACL Sports
Got a suggestion? Contact us: editor@connectnigeria.com
You might also like:
- Para-Powerlifter Folashade Oluwafemiayo Sets New World Record
- Onyinyechi Mark Sets New World Record, Wins Nigeria’s First 2024 Paralympic Gold
- Gallant D’Tigress Bow Out of the Olympics
- D’Tigress Make Olympic History After Beating Canada
