Team Nigeria’s wrestler took the country’s struggle for more medals in their own hands on Day 6 of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, winning silver and three bronze medals to take the country’s medal haul to 14.
Nigeria occupied the 12th position on the medal standings at the end of Tuesday’s Medal Events, with Ebikweminomo Welson, 21, donned in silver following his 6-2 loss to India’s Amit Kumar in the final of the men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling.
The trio of Blessing Onyebuchi, 30, Sinivie Boltic, 32, and Melvin Bibo, 37, all claimed bronze.
Welson’s cruised into the final after successive 4-0 wins each, over eventual Bronze medalist, Wales’ Craig Piling (in the semi-final), and England’s Omar Tafail in the quarter-final.
The Bayelsa State native then lost 3-1 on classification points to Kumar, 20, in Tuesday night’s final to claim the runners-up position.
Elsewhere, in women’s freestyle 75 kg Nordic System wrestling category Onyebuchi defeated India’s Jyoti 4-0.
India’s Sushil Kumal beat Bibo 8-4 to enter final of wrestling 74kg category, where he defeated Kamar Abbas of Pakistan to claim one of India’s three gold medals of the event.
Bibo however won his bronze medal final match against Australia’s Jayden Lawrence 5-0.
Defending champion in the 125kg men’s freestyle wrestling category and London Olympics quarter-finalist, Boltic, defeated New Zealand’s Marcus Carney 4-0 to clinch bronze in Glasgow.
Boltic lost his quarter-final match 4-1 to India’s Rajeev Tomar.
Boltic won gold in Delhi four years ago and had hoped to use his performance at the 2014 Games prove to the world that his previous triumph was not by fluke.
