By: Mercy Peter
The 13th edition of the Economic Community of West African States, African wrestling competition, will commence today in Abuja.
12 member countries, including Nigeria, will participate in the competition.
There are two categories-team events and individual events.
The Abuja competition will also see female participants for the first time since the commencement of the regional sport event.
Winners are expected to go home with $25,000 in the three day competition.
Mr. Francis Chuks Njoaguani, Director, ECOWAS youth and sports development center said the event is part of the regional body’s 50th anniversary ceremony.
Njoaguani said the competition is slated for March 8th 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria.
He said there will be team and individual rewards.
Njoaguani said for the team event the first position will earn $10,000, seconds positions $6,000 and third position 3000$
For individual events, he said each for the individual weight categories, first position $2,500, second $1,500 and third place $1,000.
He revealed that the event will be round robbing elimination until “we achieve the five finalists on the second day and the last day on the third we come back and have the semi finalists and final march for this year.
“ There will be medals and cash prizes and the first position for the team country will earn
“There will be medals and certificates for all the delegations as well.”
He explained that this is the first time it is taking place in Nigeria since the sports center was established in 2011.
He said Nigeria was to host the new format in 2024 before it was pushed to 2025 to coincide with the regional body’s 50th anniversary.
He stressed, “This is a very big event for Nigeria as you notice the marathon was also held here we started the ecowas anniversary with sports starting with the marathon
“This is the second activity in the series and it’s sports the ECOWAS is expecting 11 out of 12 member states of ecowas delegations have started arriving by the end of the day the 11 delegation will arrive including Niger the host
“This edition is special; over 13 editions have been held in Niger and Senegal and all the editions feature male wrestlers and this is the first edition to have female wrestlers this is a new innovation.
“We started by training female wrestlers and also female referees. We have 20 females and we will have females officiating the event.”
