On Tuesday, the four-man group for Nigeria Team of the Sambo event of the 13th African Games in Ghana obtained one gold, one silver and one bronze medal.

Sambo, which is also among the seven demonstration sports among the 30 sports listed for the Games, had Nigeria to compete against Algeria, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Niger Republic, Togo and hosts Ghana.

James Chegwam was the first to earn a bronze medal for Nigeria in the men’s 58kg while Jonah Kajido almost missed out from the podium in the men’s 79kg, after losing to his Moroccan correspondent.

Sheriff Hammed, Vice President of the Sambo Association of Nigeria, explained that the performance of the athletes serves as a pointer to the potential of Nigeria in the sport.

“We came with four athletes, and we are returning with three medals, and this goes to show that there is more potential in the sport if we continue to promote and grow the sport. These medals would motivate us to work harder to grow the sport and we believe this set of athletes will inspire others to embrace the sport. We are excited and we hope Sambo will officially be recognized by the organisers of the African Games in subsequent editions while the International Olympic Committee will consider the sport for future Games,” Hammed said.