Commonwealth Games: Blessing Oborududu , Nnamdi Innocent named Team Nigeria Captains
Top female wrestler Blessing Oborududu and Para Powerlifter Nnamdi Innocent have been named Team Nigeria Captains for the 2022 Commonwealth Games which holds In Birmingham , United Kingdom from 28th July to 8 August 2022.
33 year old Blessing Oborududu is a multiple award winning female wrestler . In 2020 at the Tokyo Olympics, her silver medal finish was the first Olympic medal win by a Nigerian wrestler while representing Nigeria .
From 2010-2022 , Blessing Oborududu has been crowned African Champion 10 times and will arrive at the 2022 Commonwealth games as Gold medalist in the 68kg category from the 2018 Commonwealth games in Gold Coast.
Male captain Nnamdi Innocent was born on 30th September 1980 (41) . He is a Para Powerlifter . Nnamdi won a bronze medal in the 72kg men’s event at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio De Janeiro , Brazil.
Nnamdi was a Gold medalist at the 2018 African Para Powerlifting Championship in Algeria before taking a Bronze at the 2019 World Para Powerlifting Championships in Nur-sultan , Kazakhstan .
Team Nigeria flagbearers at the Opening Ceremony on Thursday 28th July will be Nnamdi Chinecherem Prosper and veteran women powerlifter who doubles as the world record holder in her category, Oluwafemiayo Foashade.
Prosper, a 20 year old national record holder in Javelin will be hoping to finish on the podium in Birmingham while the veteran powerlifter Folashade will be seeking another ‘golden’ outing for Nigeria in Birmingham .
At the last Commonwealth games in Gold Coast, Nigeria won a total of 24 medals ( 9 Gold, 9 silver and 6 bronze medals ) in 8 sports .
In Birmingham, Team Nigeria will participate in 9 sports namely; Athletics , Boxing , table tennis , Judo , Weightlifting, Wrestling , Para Athletics , Para Powerlifting and Para table tennis.
Fresh from her World Athletics Championship exploits, Tobi Amusan is be tipped to repeat her Gold medal finish in 2018 . Ese Brume, Table tennis veteran Aruna Quadri , wrestler Odunarayo Adekuoroye will lead Nigeria’s medal rush in the United Kingdom.
The opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games will hold at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, United Kingdom on Thursday from 7.15pm.
72 Commonwealth Nations, 5054 athletes are expected to participate in 280 events in 20 sports at the Commonwealth Games.
