President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF), George Ashiru, has praised Commonwealth gold medalist, Josephine Esuku, for her performance at the recent World Taekwondo Federation (WTF)-sanctioned Qatar International Taekwondo Open held in Doha.
Esuku thrilled a mammoth crowd en route to grabbing three medals – two gold and one bronze – at the Open which ended on March 10.
Ashiru congratulated Esuku for making the country proud yet again: “This young lady has yet again provided inspiration to the Nigerian taekwondo community, and has done very well. Against all odds, she has proved her quality and shown why she is a Commonwealth gold medalist.”
He vowed to continue creating opportunities for all members of the Nigerian taekwondo community.
“Our Federation will continue to support all genuine Nigerian taekwondo practitioners that wish to expose themselves to the international circuit, especially members of the outstanding 2014 Commonwealth taekwondo team who had consistently replicated their top performance at subsequent national and international tournaments.”
Speaking on the importance of further exposing members of the successful Commonwealth team to more international competitions, the NTF boss encouraged more sponsors to take advantage of the consistent success stories of Nigerian taekwondo competitors to sponsor more current and up-and-coming athletes.
“There are many opens, and the only reason we do not win more medals is that we are not going for these events as often as we should.
“Esuku almost missed out on this trip. So imagine that; we would not have this wonderful inspiring story to tell if she had not gone to Qatar,” he added.
Esuku started the G1-ranked tournament by picking the bronze in the -46kg Kyreougi, when she beat Shakha Alharty of Qatar (8-2) in the quarter-finals before losing to number two-ranked seed and eventual winner, Hajer Mustapha of France, in the semi-finals.
The well rounded taekwondo competitor went on to blaze through the opposition in her area of strength, picking up two golds in the individual Poomsae and freestyle Poomsae categories on the final day of the five-day competition.
Her strong performance at the tournament was rewarded as she was awarded the “Best Female Poomsae Player” award, the first time in almost 20 years that a Nigerian is winning tournament-best award.
The versatile female athlete also won a gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the Freestyle category, and a silver medal in the Group Poomsae category.
Speaking on her victory from the Aspire Zone Competition Arena in Doha, the visibly excited University of Benin (UNIBEN) graduate could not hide her tears of joy.
She said: “I am so happy that I came here and won these medals, given the huge challenges I had en route to this trip.”
She thanked the NTF for the support. “The NTF and Ashiru were very supportive of my trip, and I am happy with the outcome because it took a lot of sacrifices just to make this trip.”