2017 National Youth Games Champion, Esther Kolawole has expressed joy winning her first senior African wrestling title. Esther Kolawole defeated Tunisia’s Dorsaff Gharssi in the 55kg women’s final at the 2020 African Wrestling Championship in Algiers, Algeria.
Kolawole told www.aclsports.com that the dream of becoming an African champion came into her mind the day she stepped into the wrestling mat.
The former Africa junior champion said, “I feel so happy, so excited and overwhelmed with joy. The only thing going through my mind in the final was to wrestle, enjoy the bout, give out my best and get the ultimate prize which was the title.
“I have always dreamt of becoming an African Wrestling Champion in the senior category since I began to wrestle in my primary school days. I am happy that I achieved it at a young age”.
Kolawole revealed that Odunayo Adekuoroye and Aminat Adeniyi remain two of her top role models in wrestling.
She said, “I have so many wrestling role models which include World number one, Odunayo Adekuoroye, two time commonwealth games champion, Aminat Adeniyi and my coach, Purity Akuh. I pick my styles from Adekuoroye and Adeniyi combining them to make my style awesome.
“I have so many plans and some of them are becoming a World Champion, Olympic Champion and plan to dominate my class for long.
“I will continue to train hard, pray, stay focus and not to be easily distracted by my current feat”.