Freestyle wrestler Odunayo Adekuoroye on Friday, August 5 came to the rescue of her compatriot Esther Kolawole after the latter broke down in tears.
Kolawole, 20, could not hold back tears after she won bronze in the freestyle 62 kg wrestling category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Her goal was to win a gold medal.
Adekuoroye, 28, who won gold in the women’s 57kg freestyle wrestling, walked up to her and placed her gold medal around her neck.
Kolawole defeated Abble Fountain 10-0 in the third place tie at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.
She only needed 20 seconds to dispatch her Scottish opponent. The Nigerian was too good, defeating her opponent by technical superiority.
Ahead of her bronze medal win, Kolawole defeated Sachini Weraduwage in the quarter-finals but lost by 10-4 to Canada’s A. Godinez Gonzalez in the semifinals.
Kolawole won the gold medal in her event at the 2020 African Wrestling Championships held in Algiers, Algeria. In May 2021, she failed to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Sofia, Bulgaria. In October 2021, she competed in the women’s 55 kg event at the World Wrestling Championships held in Oslo, Norway where she was eliminated in her second match.
In 2022, she lost her bronze medal match in the women’s 57 kg event at the Yasar Dogu Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey.
Meanwhile, another Nigerian Blessing Oborududu clinched a gold medal in the women’s freestyle 68kg wrestling event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games on Friday, August 5.
Oborududu defeated Canada’s Linda Morais 5-1 (VPO1) to win Nigeria’s second gold medal in wrestling.
The 33-year-old retained the title she won in Gold Coast, Australia four years ago.
