Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Blessing Oborududu secures Paris quota spot

Nigeria’s Olympic wrestling silver medallist Blessing Oborududu obtained a quota berth* for Paris 2024 at the African and Oceania Qualifier in Alexandria on Saturday (23 March).

Days after claiming her 14th African title in the Egyptian city, the 35-year-old needed just 24 seconds to pin Uilau Tarkong of Palau in the 68kg semi-finals with two Olympic quotas up for grabs.

Oborududu is set for her fourth Olympic appearance and will hope to go one better than Tokyo 2020 when she was beaten in the final by American Tamyra Mensah Stock.

Tayla Ford of New Zealand took the second berth, also with a pin against home athlete Samah Abdellatif, putting the two-time Commonwealth Games medallist in line to become her country’s first Olympic wrestler since Sydney 2000.

Africa’s only other wrestling medallist from Tokyo, 67kg Greco-Roman bronze winner Egypt’s Mohamed Elsayed, was beaten 7-4 by Souleymen Nasr of Tunisia in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Nasr, who also wrestled in Tokyo, went on to defeat Sahid Kargbo of Sierra Leone by technical superiority to secure a quota spot.

As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.