Nigerian wrestler Blessing Oborududu has won the first silver medal for Nigeria in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She lost the final of the 68kg women’s freestyle wrestling event 4-1 to America’s Tamyra Mensah-Stock but won silver in the process. Oborududu is the first Nigerian wrestler ever to win a silver medal at the Games. The 32-year-old athlete, who is also the first-ever Nigerian to win an Olympics medal in wrestling, qualified for the final after defeating Mongolia’s Soronzonboldyn Battsetseg 7-2 in the semi-finals on Monday.

Nigeria’s Ese Brume has won the first medal for the country in the Olympic long jump event. She won bronze in women’s long jump on Tuesday after finishing third. Brume leaped 6.97 metres with her very first jump to claim bronze behind second-placed Brittany Reece of the United States and gold medallist Malaika Mihambo of Germany. It is Nigeria’s first track and field medal at the Olympics since 2008 when Okagbare won a silver medal in Beijing. It also makes the long jump the first individual event to give Nigeria three medals at the Olympics with Chioma Ajunwa’s gold at the Atlanta ‘96 Olympics topping Okagbare’s silver from 2008 and Brume’s bronze.

Commonwealth champion Blessing Oborududu on Monday made history as the first Nigerian to reach the final of a wrestling event at the Olympics, after recording an impressive 7-2 victory against London 2012 Olympics bronze medallist Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia in a semi-final clash. Her qualification guarantees Team Nigeria a silver or gold medal in Tokyo Olympics The impressive Nigerian, a 10-time African champion will face Americas’ Tamyra Mensah-Stock in Tuesday’s 68kg women’s freestyle final, after the World champion overpowered Ukraine’s Alla Cherkasova 10-4 in the first semi-final. Oborodudu won a gold medal at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 68kg women’s freestyle wrestling event, defeating Canada’s Danielle Lappage, and she is optimistic she will achieve a similar feat in Tokyo.

Nigerian top sprinter, Blessing Okagbare has been suspended for testing positive for human growth hormone substance, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said. The anti-doping body disclosed this in a statement, saying the 32-year old Nigerian athlete tested positive for a prohibited substance in an out-of-competition test, days before the Olympics commenced.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has announced that Professor Ken Anugweje is the newly appointed head of the Medical and Anti-Doping Commission of AFN. This was announced on Thursday in a statement by AFN President, Tonobok Okowa.

Ten Nigerian athletes have been ruled ineligible to compete at the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Olympics by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), lowering the country’s chances of winning medals. The ban was following the failure of Nigerian officials to ensure athletes met the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 of the Anti-Doping Rules for ‘Category A’ federations.