ECOWAS @50: 11 Countries Arrive Abuja For African Wrestling Championship
By Bukar BOLORI
Eleven member states of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are in Abuja for the 13th edition of the Subregion’s African Wrestling Tournament which begins on Thursday, 8th March 2025, to 10th Saturday March 2025.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the Director of the ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre (EYSDC), Francis Chucks Njoaguani, said the tournament is part of activities to mark ECIWAS 50th anniversary.
Njoaguani, who is also the ECOWAS Resident Representative in Burkina Faso, said among the 12 current members of the ECOWAS, only Cape Verde failed to show interest in the tournament.
He said: “We have two categories of competition. Member states will compete against one another, first in a round robin elimination series. We’ll do eliminations until we achieve semi-finalists, four semi-finalists.
“On Friday, we will come back to the same field at the Velodrome, and we do individual weight categories. All wrestlers would fight amongst themselves in the same weight categories. So if you have 11 countries that present wrestlers in the 65 category, for instance, they will fight round robin amongst themselves, eliminate each other until we have the four semi-finalists for each of the five weight categories.
“These weight categories include 65 kilograms, which we have dedicated to just the female wrestlers. 65 kilograms and 75 kilograms, those two smaller weight categories, will be for the ladies, and then 85 kilograms, 100 kilograms and 120 kilograms will be for the male categories,” he said.
He added that all the semi-final matches, third place matches, and the final matches to determine gold, silver and bronze medalists for this year’s tournament, would take place on the final day.
He further disclosed that the winner in the team sports would earn $10,000 while the second and third positions would go home with $6000 and $3000, respectively.
He, however, said: “For each of the individual weight categories, there are also prices. So for the first position of each category, you get $2500. For the second position, you get $1500, and for the third position, you get $1000.
“There will be medals for all the winning athletes, and there will also be certificates of participation for all the athletes and the delegations.”
The deputy director at the National Sports Commission, Ikana Mbora assured of the Nigerian government’s support for the tournament, expressing the country’s readiness to host an unforgettable event.
