Lagos kicked off the 11th Africa Armwrestling Championships at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, with 12 countries in the contest.
The president of the Nigeria Armwrestling Federation, Samuel Jackson, promised that the competition would be a success.
The countries vying for honours in the competition are Nigeria, Cameroun, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Togo, Niger, Egypt, Madagascar, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.
The athletes will pair up in the various weight categories — 62kg, 75kg, 80kg, 90kg, and 100kg.
“It was a great joy that the competition has finally kicked off with so much preparation and anticipation to make it good success. We are happy because we worked tenaciously to make the sport a scoring competition in Nigeria. This is why we want corporate organisations to key in and support us,” Mr. Jackson explained.
“After this championship which we are confident of doing well, we know that would change at the end because we prepared well ahead of time to achieve credible results.”
He insisted that the competition will serve as the selection process for the world championship scheduled to take place in Turkey later this year. He also stated that athletes that made it to the quarterfinals in the various weight categories would get an automatic qualification for the world championship.
The championship is scheduled to be concluded on Sunday.
