18th June, 2012
A female Judoka and silver medalist in the weightlifting event at the recently-held Lagos State Sports Festival, Adewunmi Akintunde, has appealed to the Nigeria Judo Federation, NJF, to organise more championships for the athletes.
Akintunde, who will represent Lagos State in Judo during the forth coming National Sports Festival later in the year, said the sport will move forward in Nigeria if the athletes can feature in more competitions.
“The NJF needs to organise more competitions so that judo can develop in Nigeria. This is what is happening in other countries and I don’t see why Nigeria should be an exception,” said Akintunde.
She said: “Nigerian judokas will improve tremendously if there are sufficient competitions in the country. The country has a lot of talented judokas, who can compete with their counterparts in other countries if they are given the necessary support.”
Akintunde revealed further that it is the dearth of judo tourneys in the country that results in her usual flirtations with weightliting.
“The people who are close to me know that judo is my major sport, and my first love. But I feature in weightlifting tourneys sometimes because we don’t have enough competion in the country.
By Bimbo Ajayi