Senegal dominates 5th ECOWAS wrestling tournament
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- Category: Latest
- Published on Sunday, 15 July 2012 12:26
- Written by elombah.com
Defending champions and host Senegal lived up to pre-tournament billing by winning five of the six gold medals at stake at the 5th ECOWAS African Wresting competition which ended at Dakar’s Iba Mar Diop Stadium on Saturday 14th July 2012. Apart from winning the country teams’ tournament, the wrestlers from the land of
Teranga (hospitality) also clinched gold in the finals of the 66kg, 86kg, 100kg and 120kg individual weight category.
Nigeria placed second on the medals’ table after denying the
Senegalese what could have been a clean sweep by winning the 76kg
individual weight category, with Joel Enetimi getting the better of
his Senegalese opponent Moussa Fall.
Niger’s Laouali Abdou won the bronze in this category after dismissing
Bado Ousmane of Burkina Faso. The country also emerged third in the
overall ranking of 13 of the 15 ECOWAS Member States that took part in
the three-day Dakar competition, by winning silver in the country team
event and in the 66kg, 86kg and 100kg bouts plus a bronze in the 76kg.
The victorious Senegalese country team got the US$10,000 prize money
for winning gold; the Niger team US$6,000 for silver, while team
Nigeria pocketed US$3,000 for bronze after beating Togo to the 3rd
position.
Senegal’s Saliou Diomaye Diouf beat his Nigerian opponent Opiah Sunday
to win gold in the final of the 120kg individual weight category, with
Mali’s Abdoulaye Sanago placing third after defeating Bikliwe Agnala
of Togo.
The three top fighters in the 66kg, 76kg, 86kg, 100kg and 120kg
individual weight category were rewarded with a gold medal, trophy and
US$2,500 cash for the first position, silver and US$1,500 for the
second position, and bronze and US$1,000 for the third place.
Senegal’s Sports Minister Elhadji Malick Gakou and the ECOWAS
Commissioner for Human Development and Gender, Dr. Adrienne Diop,
handed the medals and trophy to the country team winners
Speaking at the closing the tournament, the Minister congratulated
ECOWAS and Senegal’s National Committee for the Management of
Wrestling for working hard to make the tournament a success.
He reaffirmed the commitment of the Government and People of Senegal
in support of ECOWAS’ objective to engender socio-economic development
and regional integration through sports and raising the international
status of African wrestling.
The Director of the Ouagadougou-based ECOWAS Youth and Sports
Development Centre, Mr. Francis Njoaguani, expressed satisfaction with
the level of participation at the Dakar tournament, saying he looked
forward to an improvement and more successes in subsequent editions.
Wrestlers and officials from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, the
Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra
Leone, Togo and Senegal participated in this edition of the
competition, with Ghana and Cape Verde absent.
The tournament is one of the two annual regional wrestling
competitions organized by the ECOWAS Commission, through the Youth and
Sports Development Centre.
Below is how the countries fared at the end of the Dakar tournament:
Country Team placement:
1. Senegal
2. Niger
3. Nigeria
4. Togo
Individual Weight Categories:
66kg
1. Chiekh N’diaye (Senegal)
2. Issia Oumarou (Niger)
3. Eselekuma Digha (Nigeria
4. N’dani J. M’bana (Guinea-Bissau)
76kg
1. Joel Enetemi (Nigeria)
2. Moussa Fall (Senegal
3. Laouli Abdou (Niger)
4. Bado Ousmane (Burkina Faso)
86kg
1. Mamadou Diame (Senegal)
2. Yacouba Adamou (Niger)
3. Ibrahima Bamba (Mali)
4. Mangoueu Sylvestre (Cote d’Ivoire)
100kg
1. Fode Sarr (Senegal)
2. Saley Daouda (Niger)
3. Peyebinam Kozon (Togo)
4. Amadou Ndure
120kg
1. Saliou Diomaye Diouf (Senegal)
2. Opiah Sunday (Nigeria)
3. Abdoulaye Sanogo (Mali)
4. Bikliwe Agnala (Togo)
