Beijing Olympics bronze medalist, Chika Chukwumerije will return to the ring, as he leads Nigeria’s quest for honours at the 2014 African Senior Taekwondo Championships, which kicks off on Wednesday May 7 in Tunis, Tunisia.
Chukwumerije, who last major outing was at the last maiden World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) grand prix held in Manchester will compete alongside his elder brother, Uche, Jamilu Mohammad, Sunday Onofe and Joy Ekhator.
The five-man team departed the country at the weekend with the aim of amassing points from the competition, which is a G-4 ranked tournament with the gold medalist getting 40 points.
The tournament will also plays a crucial role to determine the country’s qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.
Uche will compete in the men’s -87kg and he recently won gold at the Belgian Open and he is the current All Africa Games Champion. His world rating is 35.
Muhammad is rated 46 in the world and also a gold medalist at the 2011 All Africa Games will compete against the continent’s best in the -58kg.
Abuja-based Onofe, a bronze medalist at the 2011 All Africa Games has missed out from the world rating following his inability to compete in an international competitions and he is expected to jostle for honour in the men’s -80kg.
The only female in the team, Joy Ekhator is a double All Africa Games medalist and she ranked 67 in the world. She will compete in the women’s -49kg.
Chika, who captained Nigeria to the 2012 London Olympics will compete alongside, Olympics champion, Gabon’s Anthony Obame as well as former world champion, Mali’s Modibo Keita in the men’s +87kg.
According to Secretary of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF), Sunny Obot, the points accumulated during G-4 competition would qualify the athletes for other international competitions.
“The athletes we are featuring are champions in their weight categories. We hope that they will do very well.
This competition will help them very well; the competition is a G-4 competition. What I mean by G-4 is that you need to accumulate points, so when you get to semifinals in this competition, you tend to make 40 points to boost your ranking.
For example, Chika Chukwumerije is ranked 18th in the world. If Chika gets to semifinals or wins a gold medal in this competition, automatically that takes him to about 5th or 6th in the world in his weight category.
So there is every need that we participate in this competition. And the athletes know that if they want to participate at the Rio Olympics in 2016, they must take this competition seriously.”
He however, expressed confidence in the performance of the athletes that would represent Nigeria at the competition, saying that, “they are all champions in their own rights.’’
The trip was facilitated through private funding
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