President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) Hon. Daniel Igali says he is hopeful the country’s female wrestlers will make history by winning medals at next year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Igali’s optimism follows the impressive outing of Nigeria at the 2019 Senior World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan last month, where Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg) won bronze and also qualified for the Olympics, while Blessing Oborududu (68kg), Aminat Adeniyi (62kg), Mercy Genesis (50kg) and Blessing Onyebuchi (76kg) narrowly missed out on winning medals but gained crucial ranking points in the process ahead of the Olympics.

However, the World and Olympic champion insists adequate funding and early preparation are needed for the team to excel in Tokyo.

“I’m hoping that we are going to be given the funds necessary to prepare, especially, these girls for the Olympics,” Igali said.

“I don’t want to make predictions, but from what I saw here (Kazakhstan), virtually all five of these girls have a chance of winning medals at the Olympics if we start preparations tomorrow.”

Nigeria is yet to win an Olympic medal in wrestling, but Igali claimed gold for his adopted country Canada at the Sydney Games in 2000.