Nigeria win silver at Korea Open
Team Nigeria’s 2015 African Games gold medallist, Uzoamaka Otuadinma, has restored the country’s global pride at the ongoing 2017 Taekwondo Chuncheon Korea Open after claiming silver in the women’s +73kg.
For the first time in five years, Nigeria made its presence felt at international stage as Otuadinma fought her way into the final with a narrow loss to her Chinese counterpart in the final.
The Delta State-born athlete, who only last week lost in the second round of the World Taekwondo Championships, defeated her counterparts from South Korea, United States and Columbia, and with the silver medal, the Nigerian has claimed the first medal for Nigeria in the last five years in any international tournaments.
It was not same story for Otuadinma’s compatriots as the duo of Josephine Esuku and Chinazum Nwosu were not lucky as they were knocked out in the second and first round respectively.
After defeating her Korean opponent in the first round, Esuku crashed to her Australian opponent in the second round, while Nwosu, who was the only Nigerian that made the last 16 at the World Championships was edged out in the first round by a Philippines.
Today, the 2015 African Games silver medalist, Edwin Samson will be competing in the men’s -63 kg while on Friday, Santos Akhilele will take to the court in the men’s -68kg at the tournament. Also the Nigeria men’s team will compete against the rest of the world in the team event of the tournament.
An excited Coach John Victor from Korea said that he was excited with the performance of all the athletes as they have shown a lot of promises despite their lack of exposure.