IBADAN -‘The Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) on Tuesday said that it had increased the weight categories from eight to 10 for the forthcoming Gov. Wike National Wrestling Championships.
The maiden Gov. Wike National Wrestling Championships will hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers, from Nov. 23 to Nov. 30.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the United World Wrestling’s (UWW) Bureau officially approved the switch from eight to 10 weight categories across all events in August.
The Technical Director of the NWF, Damien Ohaike, said a total of 90 weight classes will be available in Greco-Roman, female wrestling and men’s freestyle.
Damien said that wrestlers for the 2018 Africa Wrestling Championships will be selected from the competition.
“Rivers should expect the best wrestlers. Everyone wants to represent Nigeria at the African Championship and I’m sure it’s going to be a reasonable competition.
“The reason for the moderation came about when the UWW Africa made slight adjustments because they discovered most athletes shed too much weight when preparing for championships.
“We want to use it to test run the wrestlers at the Rivers State Indoor Sports Complex, venue of the eight days event,’’ said Ohaike.