August 04, (THEWILL) –Â Nigeria’s Olympic flag-bearer and wrestler Odunayo Adekuoroye, who was one of the remaining medal hopefuls in the wrestling events of the Tokyo Games, lost in her 57kg weight category fight on Wednesday in the most unfortunate of circumstances.
Fighting against Anastasia Nichita of Moldova, who was by no means an equal to the second-seeded Nigeria, Adekuoroye led by 8-0 going into the final moments of their encounter at the opening round of wrestling only to suffer a defeating fall.
It was a very unfortunate result for the Nigerian who was completely dominant throughout. Adekuoroye scored all the points in the first half to finish 4-0 with nothing to register on the points’ board for her Moldovan opponent in the freestyle wrestling bout.
She added four more points to her tally to take a seemingly unassailable 8-0 lead into the last minute of their round of 16 fight. With two more points, the contest could have been over and Adekuoroye could have progressed to the quarter-finals. Otherwise, time could have simply passed and at the end of the minute, she could have still won.
That was when she made a mistake.
As she pushed forward to seize victory, she mistimed a step and took a fall which Nichita fully took advantage of to pin her down. Adekuoroye tried to pull off from the pin for her victory but the referee called the match and the win went to the Moldovan.
Her devastating fall was unfortunate but, there still remains a slim chance for Adekuoroye, whose second-seeded ranking after winning gold at the Poland Open tournament made her a strong contender for a podium finish, to remain in contention for a bronze through the repechage.
In tournaments like the Olympics, a repechage is a practice that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round. This will however depend on Nichita making it all the way to the finals, which is not very likely.
It will sting Adekuoroye considering how completely she dominated the match, how close she came to progressing within the final minute and how all her preparations might have not been given the chance to show their value. Having also won a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and a bronze at the World Wrestling Championships, she may have to look forward to Paris 2024 for another shot.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
