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By Peter Akinbo
Nigerian taekwondo sensation, Elizabeth Anyanacho, on Tuesday won a gold medal at the ongoing African Games in Ghana, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
It’s Nigeria’s first taekwondo gold at the competition and it came after Anyanacho defeated Africa’s No.1 ranked taekwondo athlete Mohammed Aya of Egypt in three rounds to claim the gold medal in Accra, an upgrade to the bronze she won in Rabat, Morocco at the 2019 African Games.
The 24-year-old started the day defeating W. Zaboure of Burundi in the quarter-finals and then in the semi-finals, Anyanacho beat Morocco’s Salih Sofia in another three rounds on the mat.
Anyanacho, who earlier year qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in France, took her time and studied her opponent Aya very well. And despite losing the first round, she came back strongly to win the second and third rounds to claim the gold.
In another bout, 2019 African Games champion Chinazum Nwozu, failed to retain her gold medal after losing her semi-finals match to Bouma Coulibaly of Ivory Coast in the -53kg weight category.
Chinazum, who is Nigeria No.1 rated in her category, started brightly defeating Omolara Eunice of Ghana in her quarter-final bout to advance to the semis.
In the semi-finals, Coulibaly resisted everything Chinazum threw at her to win the first two rounds, which sealed the victory for the Ivrorian.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Baffa Mohammed defeated Bennet Tossou in the Round of 32 before losing out to Ben Konate of Ivory Coast in the Round of 16 of the men’s -63kg event.
In the -54kg category, medal hopeful Adbul Ariola couldn’t go past Ethiopia’s Zwede Fitsh as he narrowly lost the third round in the round of 16 encounter after they were both tied 1-1.
In the women’s +73Kg category, Florence Okafor defeated Boukar Assaine of Chad in the Round of 16 before losing out to Fatima Ezzahra Abo of Morocco in the quarter-finals.
Following her win, Anyanacho will be more determined to give her all at the Paris Olympics, where she anticipates a tough outing.
“I have really tough opponents and I know they are training hard. I don’t envisage having any easy matches in Paris. But I will do my best and fight with all I have,” she said.
“Putting all my experiences together, I have a good feeling that I’m going to get a very positive result in Paris.”