Host Nigeria won bronze to claim its second medal at the 2018 Cadet and Junior African Fencing Championship which ended Monday at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Indoor Sports Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
Nigeria got its first medal at the championship featuring 13 countries through Tosan Egbesemirone in the mens’ individual epee and the country ensured another podium finish on the last day of the tournament through the female sabre team of Somina Daminabo, Mariam Abdulazeez and Titilayo Vera Cruz.
Although they lost 45-18 points to Togo, who were represented by Francoise Koutogho, Preinam Anadi and Grace Sonyo, it was enough for the home girls to claim the bronze.
“I’m very happy to be a medalist in my first major international tournament. We started vey slow and by the time we picked up, the points gap was too wide. We look forward to do better next time,” team captain Daminabo said.
The Egyptian men’s team defeated South Africa in the foil 45-26 while the women’s team also defeated South Africa in the epee.
The El Sayed brothers Mohamed and Ahmed made a telling contributions to the match which saw South Africa established a lead at a point before the turn around by the North Africans.
Egypt emerged champions with 11 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze medals. Algeria placed second with 2 gold and 1 silver and South Africa was third with 1 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze.
Nigeria finished in seventh place with 2 bronze medals.
Benin, Côte d ‘Ivoire, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia and Nigeria featured in the point-earning tournament for the World Championship slated for April 1st to 4th in Verona, Italy.
