(L-R) Medalists Nigeria’s Ebikweminomo Welson (Silver), India’s Amit Kumar Amit (Gold), Wales’ Caig Pilling (Bronze) and Pakistan’s Azhar Hussain (Bronze) pose wit htheir medals following the Men’s Freestyle 57kg Freestyle Wrestling competition at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland on July 29, 2014. AFP PHOTO /ANDY BUCHANAN
Team Nigeria’s wrestlers added to the country’s medal haul at the ongoing 2014 Commonwealth Games, with Sinivie Boltic, Ebikweminmo Welson and Melvin Bibo finishing in medal positions.
Welson settled for silver in the men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling after losing out to Amit Kumar Amit of India in the final, with Azhar Hussain of Pakistan and Craig Piling of Wales winning their respective bronze medal matches to make-up the podium.
Boltic meanwhile won bronze in the men’s 125kg freestyle wrestling after defeating Hollis Ochieng Mkanga of Kenya in one of two bronze medal matches, with England’s Chinu Singh beating Marcus Carney of New Zealand to win the other bronze medal.
Boltic had gone out of contention for the gold medal after losing to Rajeev Tomar of India in the quarter-final stage, with the Indian eventually losing out to Korey Jarvis of Canada in the final.
In the men’s 74kg freestyle, Bibo defeated Australia’s Jayden Lawrence in one of the bronze medal matches, having gone out of gold medal contention in his semi-final loss to eventual gold medal winner Sushil Kumar of India.
And in the women’s 48kg freestyle event, Nigeria’s Rosemary Nweke was beaten in the quarter-final stage by Vinesh, with the Indian going on to claim gold by beating England’s Yana Rattigan in the final.
Based on the official medals’ table, Team Nigeria now has a total of 14 medals, including three gold and five silver medals while Australia leads the medals’ table with 34 gold medals ahead of England with 33 gold medals.