President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, Mrs Magaret Binga, has hailed the Honourable Minister for Youths and Sports, Mr Sunday Dare, for his critical support for the National Taekwondo Olympic tickets, who recently secured an Olympic ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The quartet of Elizabeth Anyanacho, Chinazum Nwosu, Ifeoluwa Ajayi and Benjamin Okuomose represented Nigeria in the female -67kg, -57kg, male -68kg and +80kg categories respectively of the just concluded African Qualification Tournament for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Elizabeth Anyanacho clinched the Olympic ticket for Team Nigeria while African Champion, Chinazum Nwosu, and African Bronze medalists Benjamin Okuomose won Bronze medalists, ensuring that they are the substitutes for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, if the finalists have any doping infractions.
The Ministry had in 2019 announced that the country will support eleven sports, including Taekwondo, to participate at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Prior to the Olympic qualifiers in Morocco, the Sports Minister had intervened to ensure the team participates in the Fujairah Open, which was an important preparatory event leading up to the qualification.
Binga referenced this critical intervention as a pivotal moment in the team’s eventual qualification for Tokyo 2020.
“Our team’s participation at Fujairah really increased their confidence and gave the technical team the feedback they needed to tweak the team ahead of Morocco. I want to thank the Honourable Minister for putting actions to his words by supporting the team before and during the qualification.”
The two-time African Champion commended the technical crew and athletes for making history under her leadership.
“I want to thank the technical crew and the qualified athletes for making Nigeria proud. At the start of our administration, we were clear that qualifying for Tokyo was one of the administration’s objectives, and we gave a clear mandate for this and supported the Technical Director, Chika Chukwumerije over the past three years. So, we give glory to the Almighty that it has come to pass.”
The Federation’s female president commended her namesake Elizabeth for making history while encouraging the trio that narrowly missed the ticket.
“Elizabeth has once again cementing the impact females are making in Nigeria sports history, by becoming the fist woman to qualify in 16 years so I am happy for her. I am also sad because Benjamin was so close to defeating the former world champion. Only 12 seconds and anxiety cost him his Olympic dream. Chinazum and Ifeoluwa did really great and we are proud of all their efforts.”
Binga, who is an officer with the Nigeria Customs, reiterated that qualifying for Tokyo was just the start of the journey and called up the Sports Ministry, Corporates and well-meaning Nigerians to support the team.
“We want to win a medal in Tokyo. This is our absolute target. It is a difficult challenge because our athletes need so much exposure to international competitions and training camps. We must drastically raise their mental and physical level over the next five months, and this requires a lot of resources. Our talents are young and can deliver once given the support.”
