#NFRoundup

NF Roundup Blog, Jan. 25 - Jan. 31

Friday, January 29, 2021 - 14:22 By United World Wrestling Press

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NWF Announce Preparations For African Championships, Olympic Qualifiers

The Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) announced plans to get the country’s wrestlers ready for the Africa/Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament from 2nd to 4th April and the preceding 2021 African Championships from 6th – 11th April, both in El Jadida, Morocco.

Team Nigeria wrestlers returned to action for the first time in almost a year at the recently-concluded Baraza Champion of Champions tournament in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, which was held from 15th to 18th January.

Speaking on behalf of the federation, President of the body Hon. Daniel Igali disclosed that the wrestlers will commence preparations for the doubleheader in Morocco with the forthcoming National Sports Festival in Benin Edo State from 14th to 28th February, before going into an intensive close-camping in Yenagoa a week after the Festival.

The World and Olympic champion added that the plan is to have each wrestler compete in about 15 bouts prior to the qualifiers in Morocco.

“The National Sports Festival which comes up from the 14th to 28th of February will also be another avenue to test themselves and to get ready for the competitions (African Champions and Olympic qualifiers),” Igali, who is also the Commissioner for Youth and Sports in Bayelsa State, said. “Those are all preparatory grounds.

“However, after the National Sports Festival, we are going to give the athletes about a one week break so they can go home, catch up with friends and family, and then, we will invite them back to camp (In Yenagoa) essentially to prepare for these all-important African Championships and Olympic qualifiers.

“During the camp, we expect to bring in about three different training partners per person. We want to have every athlete going to the Olympic qualifiers and African Championships to also, within the camp, have about 10 matches. Our goal is to get everyone about 15 matches before going to the Olympic qualifiers and African Championships in Morocco.

“So, that’s what we plan, and we think that if we are able to get everybody competing about 15 times before then, we should be fine. Our target will be met.”

World No. 2 in 57kg Women Wrestling Odunayo Adekuoroye (57kg) is the only Nigerian to have qualified for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games which runs from 23rd July to 8th August this year. However, the NWF is hopeful, at least, seven more wrestlers would join her to Tokyo for the Games.

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nigeria paraded seven wrestlers.

#WrestleZagreb

Wrestling Calendar 2025: World, continental championships live on UWW+

Tuesday, January 7, 2025 - 10:09 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (January 7) -- The 2025 wrestling season for United World Wrestling will kick off with the 1st Ranking Series event -- Zagreb Open -- in Croatia. The event will be the first of the four Ranking Series scheduled this year.

The season-opening Zagreb Open will be held from February 5 to 9 at the Arena Zagreb, the venue for the senior World Championships later in September. The second stop of the Ranking Series will be in Tirana, Albania. The Muhamet Malo tournament will be held from February 26 to March 2.

The focus will shift to championships after the first two Ranking Series events and kicking off the continental tour will be Oceania Championships in Pago Pago, American Samoa from March 20 to 22. The Asian Championships will be held in Amman, Jordan from March 25 to 30.

April will see the European Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia from April 7 to 13 before the tour continues for African Championships in Casablanca, Morocco from April 29 to May 4. Pan-American Championships will be held in Monterrey, Mexico from May 8 to 11, marking and end of the senior continental championships.

The Ranking Series will return in May, with Mongolia as the third stop. The Ulaanbaatar Open will be held from May 29 to June 1 in the Mongolian capital. The final stop will be the prestigious Polyák Imre, Varga János & Kozma István Memorial tournament from July 17 to 20. As is the norm, it will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

The World Championships calendar will begin with the U17 World Championships in Athens, Greece from July 28 to August 3. The championships is returning to Greece after seven years. Close to a month later, the U20 World Championships will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria from August 18 to 24. The same tournament was held in Sofia in 2022.

The mega event for 2025 -- World Championships -- will be held in Zagreb from September 13 to 21 at the Zagreb Arena in the capital city of Croatia. This is the first time that Croatia will be hosting the big event.

Budapest, Hungary will host the Veteran World Championships from October 7 to 12 and the season's final World Championships will be the U23, to be held in Novi Sad, Serbia from October 20 to 26.

Apart from these events, the UWW calendar will see the age-group continental championships, beach wrestling events and numerous other international tournaments throughout 2025.

All Ranking Series, continental championships and World Championships will be live and exclusive on UWW+.

For a detailed calendar, visit uww.org/events