11th May, 2012
Nigeria will have another opportunity to increase her Olympic slots in the boxing events as three Nigerian female boxers compete in China at the London 2012 Olympics qualfiers.
The three boxers, tutored by world champion, Ijeoma Egbunine, left the shores of the country during the week alongside their coach and some officials of the Nigeria Boxing Federation, NBF.
The boxers, who will compete in three weight categories include Toyin Oladeji who will fight in the 51kg, Kehinde Obareh, who will trade punches in the 60kg and Edith Okogie, who will compete in the 75kg category.
Early in the week, two male boxers, Muideen Akanji and Lukman Lawal qualified for the Olympics after competing at the African Olympic Qualifying Event held in Casablanca, Morocco.
Both Akanji and Lawal lost in the semi-finals of their respective categories but did enough to earn qualification tickets for the London 2012 Games.
In the 75kg category, Akanji, who won bronze at the last All-Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique, was defeated by Morocco’s Badr-Eddine Haddioui, while Lawal lost to another Moroccan Ahmed Bakri in the 81kg category.