The president of Nigeria Armwrestling Federation, Engineer Samuel Jackson has revealed an elaborate plan that has been set in motion by the body to ensure the sport expands to various regions across the country and then take Africa by storm at the continental championship in 2027.
While also shedding light on the federation’s plans towards this year’s African contest in July, Engineer Jackson told Sports247 that the recent Armwrestling National Open Championship in Ibadan revealed a large number of potentials for the sport in Nigeria.
Jackson added, “We’ve never had it good in the heavyweight category but, this time around, we had more than 14 competitors from the 90-plus kg and 100-plus kg class from all over the country. I am also looking up to a new guy on the block.
He’s a youth corper, but he beat everyone, including the old armwrestlers. I’ve never seen him and a few other new ones like him before, but this open championship helped us open up many promising stars.”
Jackson added that it was a collective effort from the federation’s officials, technical members and the athletes, who he thanked for how they all put in their resources to set new frontiers for arm wrestling in Nigeria.
Jackson stated, “It was not about me or the federation alone. It was about a new challenge for armwrestling in Nigeria and building a new block for fresh athletes. At the same time, the old established athletes, mostly from Lagos and Imo, were dethroned.
We now have new champions, new people that we are going to work with towards the African championship in July, and those well work with towards Egypt 2027. All of these points mean that this sport is growing.”
The armwrestling supremo then spoke about efforts that have already been put in place and others in the pipeline to ensure that the pulse of armwrestling is felt across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
He declared enthusiastically, “I also want to use this opportunity to say thank you to the Bauchi State government for believing in this sport. They were the best well-dressed state, they had the highest number of athletes and they won some medals; despite the fact that they’ve never seen armwrestling before. So, the federation is now moving to support Bauchi to develop faster.
We will send the national coach there. We are already discussing with them right now and, before the National Sports Festival, we’ll send the federation’s trainer there to put them through their paces and bring them up to the top standard of armwrestling.”
Jackson concluded with details of the federation’s ongoing efforts at taking the growing passion for armwrestling all across Nigeria, as he revealed: “We’ve been in Calabar, Abuja and Kogi. What we now need to do is just to stabilise and sustain what we’ve gained, then open new frontiers. We will go back to the regions before the festival and even after the festival.”
