Adekuoroye wins gold, Oborududu claims silver at wrestling’s Poland Open

NIGERIA’S Odunayo Adekuoroye was in brilliant form at the Poland Open on Friday, winning gold in the women’s 57kg at the Ranking Series wrestling tournament.

The tournament serves as a top preparatory competition for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where world’s former No.1 Adekuoroye is aiming for a medal in July and August.

Another Nigerian lady Blessing Oborududu won silver at the prestigious tournament in Warsaw, which is also used to rank wrestlers for the Games.

In the qualification round, Commonwealth champion Adekuoroye defeated Ukrainian Tetyana Kit 10-0 via technical superiority, before dominating world and Olympic champion Helen Maroulis of the United States of America 13-0 in the quarter-finals in their first meeting since the 2018 Beat The Streets competition in New York.

Three-time World Championships medalist Adekuoroye overpowered Russian Valeria Zholobova 10-0 via superiority in the semi-finals to set up a final showdown against Iryna Kurachkina of Belarus.

However, following the inability of the Belarusian Kurachkina to show up in the final, Adekuoroye was awarded a forfeit victory, remarkably claiming gold at the tournament without conceding a point.

On her part, Oborududu won 3-2 over Russian Khanum Velieva in the qualification round, before battering Nesrin Bas of Turkey 12-0 via pinfall in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-finals, the former world No.2 and 10-time African champion subdued American Forrest Molinari 8-2, before falling to a 3-0 defeat to France’s Koumba Larroque in the gold medal bout.

On Thursday, Aminat Adeniyi (62kg) and youngster Adijat Idris (50kg) were unsuccessful in their attempts to win laurels at the tournament.

Two-time Commonwealth champion Adeniyi lost 6-0 to Liubov Ovcharova of Russia in the qualification round, while Idris lost 8-3 to another Russian Nadezhda Sokolova in the quarter-finals.