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Nigeria
has never won a medal in wrestling at the Olympic Games, but the
technical adviser of the country’s wrestling team, Daniel Igali, is
confident a wrestler in Nigerian colours will get to achieve that at
the London 2012 Olympics.

Nigerian-born Igali
actually won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney,
Australia; but achieved it in the colours of his adopted country,
Canada. He now wants a wrestler in Nigerian colours to follow suite at
the next Olympic Games in London following the impressive performance
posted by the country’s team to the just concluded Commonwealth Games
in New Delhi, India. Nigeria finished third overall in the wrestling
event behind the hosts and Canada with a total of 13 medals, including
three gold medals – one respectively in the men’s Freestyle and
Greco-Roman events by the duo of Sinvie Boltic and Efionayi
Agbonavbare, as well as Ifeoma Nwoye’s gold one in the women’s
freestyle.

The prophesy

Only the 14 medals
achieved through the combined efforts of the Nigerian weightlifting and
powerlifting teams was able to surpass the feat of the wrestling team;
and Igali can’t see anything stopping his wrestlers from climbing the
podium at the London Games. “What happened at this Commonwealth Games
is a foreshadowing of what is going to happen in the near future
because I can tell you right now that we will win medals at the
Olympics,” he said. “It does not matter the problems we will get to
encounter along the way because I have taken it upon myself to lead
these athletes to a successful Olympics. Even if I have to get the
athletes to live in my house in order to achieve this, I will do that
because I know what it takes and I am going to do everything to make it
happen. I am so sure that come 2012, I don’t care what it takes, that
we will be on the podium and wrestling will bring glory to Nigeria.”