Nigeria Records Historic Achievement at African Fencing Championships
Nigeria has celebrated a major milestone at the 23rd African Fencing Championships as the country’s women’s epee team secured their best-ever result, finishing in the top five for the first time in the competition’s history.
The five-day event, which ended on Sunday at Charterhouse, Lagos, saw over 120 fencers from 18 African countries compete across 12 events. Although Egypt dominated the medal table with an impressive haul of 11 gold, five silver, and five bronze medals, Nigeria’s breakthrough performance stood out as a proud moment for the host nation.
The Nigerian women’s epee team — Somtochukwu Eribenne, Sara Idongesit, and Adebodunirin Thomas — showed resilience after an early quarter-final defeat to Algeria. They bounced back strongly to defeat Benin Republic 45-40 in a classification match, securing fifth place and earning warm applause from enthusiastic local supporters.
The president of the Nigeria Fencing Federation praised the team’s performance, calling it “a turning point” for fencing in the country. “Hosting the championship and achieving this kind of result shows how far we’ve come. It’s a win for the team, and for Nigerian sports,” he said.
Egypt continued to assert its continental dominance, particularly in the men’s team foil, where they comfortably defeated Angola in the final after beating Nigeria in the semi-finals.
In the women’s team epee final, Egypt was controversially awarded the gold medal after Algeria refused to continue the match, which was tied at 6-6. Officials ruled in favour of Egypt.
While Nigeria did not make the overall podium in terms of medal count, the performance of its women’s epee team marks a historic achievement and a promising sign of growth in the sport.
Other countries in the medal standings included Kenya (1 gold), Tunisia (2 silver, 2 bronze), Algeria, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Angola, Morocco, Cape Verde, and Senegal.
With the successful hosting of the championship and the women’s epee team making national history, Nigeria’s presence in African fencing is now stronger.
