Commonwealth wrestling champion Blessing Oborududu says she is confident of landing a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics later this year, provided she gets adequate preparation.

The former World No. 2 in the 68kg weight class sealed a spot at her third Summer Games in impressive fashion at the just-concluded Africa/Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament in Hammamet, Tunisia, dispatching her opponents with relative ease.

On arrival in Lagos from Tunisia, where she and three others secured qualification for the Tokyo Games, the 10-time African champion could not hide her excitement, expressing gratitude to God and the President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation Daniel Igali for ensuring the wrestlers had adequate preparation prior to the qualifiers.

“I feel really, really excited,” she said. “And I just want to use this opportunity to appreciate God and also appreciate the President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation for the preparation of the qualifiers in Tunisia.

“We were in camp for three weeks before we went for the qualifiers.”

On her chances of claiming Nigeria’s first-ever medal in wrestling at the Olympics, the 32-year-old, who previously represented the country at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Summer Games, said:

“I have been to the Olympics before; in 2012 I was quite young and inexperienced. In 2016, I was unable to get to anywhere, but I’m believing God that this 2021 Olympics, by His grace, if preparation goes according to plan, I will be expecting a medal.”

No Nigerian has been able to win an Olympics medal in wrestling but Oborududu, Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg), Aminat Adeniyi (62kg), youngster Adijat Idris (50kg) and Ekerekeme Agiomor (86kg) will be hoping to write their names in the history books as the first to do so.