The president of Nigeria Armwrestling Federation, Engineer Samuel Jackson has assured that he and other officials in the body’s executive committee will not rest on their oars after their recent success in Ibadan, Sports247 reports.
Much to Engineer Jackson’s delight, this year’s Nigerian Armwrestling National Open Championship at Lekan Salami Stadium in Ibadan turned out to be a defining point for the sport, but Jackson has now declared excitedly that there is more to come.
He added in an exclusive interview with Sports247: “Nigeria has raw talent. They have the skills, and we just have to harness all of this for us to be the best in Africa. We are moving fast and we are going to surprise everyone. We saw the signs during our National Open in Ibadan. Even people who have not seen armwrestling before came to the table and turned it into a theatre. It was perfect.”
Jackson then projected into the near and distant future, as he revealed that plans are already being put in place by the federation to discover new avenues that can help in expanding the sport.
He added, “We just need to harness all those potentials and the energy to make Nigeria be on the map of where we want them to be. So, all the regions should watch out for us. We’ll be knocking on doors. We’ll be making some calls to speak to various people and see what we can do about building on the gains achieved in Ibadan. We will not be relenting on that.”
The armwrestling boss concluded by reiterating the federation’s desire to take developmental programmes and activities all across the country, as the board aims to make armwrestling grow faster and become a major feature in Nigeria ahead of the 2027 Africa Games in Egypt.
“Hopefully, the next open championship might be in another region. But I know Oyo still want us to come back, so that we can improve on what we did there this year. So, it doesn’t end here. We have a lot of work to do right now, especially in discovering new athletes. It’s going to challenge the old status quo of what we have. Seeing young athletes defeat their seniors … that is the beauty of sports,” Jackson philosophised
