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Nigeria wins bronze at African Judo championships

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Nigeria’s representative at the 41st African Seniors Championships, Enku Ekuta won a bronze medal at the competition held in Antananarivo, Madagascar.

Ekuta defeated Billet Sandrine of Cape Verde with an ippon to emerge third position in the 63kg women last Friday.

Her qualification for the semifinal after defeating Damiella Nomenjanahary of Madagascar was also with an ippon. But Ekuta lost the semifinal bout to Amina Belkadi of Algeria.

The African Seniors Championships is one of the key judo events on the International Judo Federation (IJF) calendar aimed at enabling eligible judokas to gain points leading to qualification for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games.

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The bronze medal has now added 350 IJF world ranking points to Ekuta’s points tally, and further enhances her chances of securing enough points to qualify for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games.

Ekuta said: “I am happy that I participated at the 41st African Seniors Championships and I thank God for winning a bronze medal for Nigeria.

“I thank my sponsor, Accugas and the Nigeria Judo Federation for their support. Although my target was gold, the bronze medal will nonetheless increase my total points in the race to qualify for the Olympics.

“I will work on my mistakes and improve on my performance in the next championship,” she added.

Ekuta won gold at the 4th African Judo Open which took place on November 14, 2020 in Dakar, Senegal.

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