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Blessing Oborududu

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Blessing Oborududu
Photo of Blessing Oborududu at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Born (1989-03-12) 12 March 1989 (age 35)
Sport
CountryNigeria
SportAmateur wrestling
EventFreestyle
Medal record
Women's freestyle wrestling
Representing  Nigeria
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2020 Tokyo 68 kg
African Championships
Gold medal – first place 2010 Cairo 59 kg
Gold medal – first place 2011 Dakar 63 kg
Gold medal – first place 2013 N'Djamena 63 kg
Gold medal – first place 2014 Tunis 63 kg
Gold medal – first place 2015 Alexandria 63 kg
Gold medal – first place 2016 Alexandria 69 kg
Gold medal – first place 2017 Marrakesh 63 kg
Gold medal – first place 2018 Port Harcourt 68 kg
Gold medal – first place 2019 Hammamet 68 kg
Gold medal – first place 2020 Algiers 68 kg
Gold medal – first place 2022 El Jadida 68 kg
Gold medal – first place 2023 Hammamet 68 kg
Gold medal – first place 2024 Alexandria 68 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2009 Casablanca 59 kg
African Games
Gold medal – first place 2015 Brazzaville 63 kg
Gold medal – first place 2019 Rabat 68 kg
Gold medal – first place 2023 Accra 68 kg
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2018 Gold Coast 68 kg
Gold medal – first place 2022 Birmingham 68 kg
Silver medal – second place 2010 Delhi 63 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Glasgow 63 kg
Islamic Solidarity Games
Gold medal – first place 2017 Baku 63 kg
Yasar Dogu Tournament
Gold medal – first place 2022 Istanbul 68 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Istanbul 68 kg
2021 Poland Open
Silver medal – second place 2021 Poland 68 kg

Blessing Oborududu (born 12 March 1989, in Gbanranu) is a Nigerian freestyle wrestler.[1] She is currently ranked as the world number two woman wrestler and also the first wrestler to win an Olympic medal representing Nigeria at the Olympics.[2][3] She is also a twelve-time African champion from 2010 to 2023.

Career

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Oborududu was invited to a national camp in 2007 to take part at the African Games after noticing her impressive performances at school inter-house wrestling competitions.[4][5] Her parents were initially against her ambition to become a sport wrestler and advised her that wrestling is allocated only for boys. She idolised Canadian-Nigerian wrestler Daniel Igali who was originally regarded as the first person from Nigeria to win an Olympic medal in wrestling.[5]

She has won a gold medal at the African Wrestling Championships every year for the last 11 years, except for 2012 when she did not enter due to competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics.[6][7] She competed in the freestyle 63 kg event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and was eliminated in the 1/8 finals by Monika Michalik.[8]

She won the bronze medal in the women's middleweight at the 2014 Commonwealth Games after defeating Chloe Spiteri in her bronze medal match.[9] She also competed in the women's middleweight at the 2016 Summer Olympics, losing to Soronzonboldyn Battsetseg in the second round.[10] She won a gold medal for women 63 kg category at the 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games.[11][12] She won a gold medal at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 68 kg women's freestyle wrestling event, defeating Canada's Danielle Lappage.[13]

She qualified at the 2021 African & Oceania Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament to represent Nigeria at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.[14][15] In June 2021, she won the silver medal in her event at the 2021 Poland Open held in Warsaw, Poland.[16][17]

On 3 August 2021, she won the silver medal in the women's freestyle 68 kg after losing to America's Tamyra Mensah-Stock 4–1 at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[18][19][20][21] She also became the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal in wrestling.[22][5] She also eventually won the Nigeria's first silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.[23]

In 2022, she won the gold medal in the 68 kg event at the Yasar Dogu Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey.[24] by beating her counterpart Meerim Zhumanazarova from Kyrgyzstan 3–2.[25] She won the gold medal in her event at the 2022 African Wrestling Championships held in El Jadida, Morocco.[26] A month later, she won one of the bronze medals in her event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2022 held in Rome, Italy.[27] She won the gold medal in the women's 68 kg event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England.[28]

References

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  1. ^ "Blessing Oborududu". London 2012. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  2. ^ "Nigeria's Blessing Oborududu qualifies for Olympics wrestling final". The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News. 2 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Oborududu wins Nigeria's first-ever Olympic medal in wrestling". TheCable. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  4. ^ "How Nigeria's first wrestler in Olympics final, Oborududu, was discovered -NWF". Punch Newspapers. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "Blessing Oborududu is Nigeria's first Olympic wrestling medallist - find out more about her". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Blessing Oborududu career placements, United World Wrestling". United World Wrestling. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  7. ^ "2020 African Wrestling Championships Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 June 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  8. ^ "Blessing Oborududu - Events and results". London 2012. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  9. ^ "Glasgow 2014 - Blessing Oborududu Profile". g2014results.thecgf.com. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  10. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Blessing Oborududu". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  11. ^ "Azerbaijan wrestlers finish in style". Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  12. ^ "4th Islamic Solidarity Games - Women's 63 kg freestyle wrestling" (PDF). 21 May 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  13. ^ "Now this is how you celebrate winning a gold medal". BBC Sport.
  14. ^ Shefferd, Neil (3 April 2021). "Hosts Tunisia claim four more Tokyo 2020 berths on day two of UWW Africa and Oceania Olympic qualifier". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  15. ^ "2021 African & Oceania Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 May 2021. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  16. ^ Rowbottom, Mike (11 June 2021). "Adekuoroye scatters Rio 2016 medallists en route to gold at UWW Poland Open". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  17. ^ "2021 Poland Open Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2021. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  18. ^ "Tamyra Mensah-Stock Takes Gold in Wrestling". NBC Chicago. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  19. ^ "Olympics-Wrestling-Mensah-Stock wins women's freestyle light heavyweight gold medal". Reuters. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  20. ^ "Tamyra Mensah-Stock wins women's freestyle 68kg". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  21. ^ "Former Olympic champion charges Oborududu to forget 'guaranteed silver' and go for gold". guardian.ng. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  22. ^ "[BREAKING] Tokyo Olympics: Wrestler Oborududu makes history, wins Nigeria's first silver". Punch Newspapers. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  23. ^ "Wrestler Oborududu win Nigeria first Tokyo 2020 Olympics medal". BBC News Pidgin. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  24. ^ "2022 Yasar Dogu, Vehbi Emre & Hamit Kaplan Tournament Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  25. ^ Vinay. "#WrestleIstanbul: Oborududu Wins 68kg Gold; Tynybekova stunned". United World Wrestling. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  26. ^ "2022 African Wrestling Championships Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  27. ^ "Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2022 Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 June 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  28. ^ "Wrestling Competition Summary" (PDF). 2022 Commonwealth Games. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2022. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
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