CLIPPED . . . Nigeria’s Soso Tamarau (L) wrestles with Uzbekistan’s Magomed Idrisovitch Ibragimov in their men’s 97kg freestyle round of 16 wrestling bout at the last Olympic Games in Rio 2016.
The Chairman of Nigeria Wrestling Referees Association, Yusuf Usman, will be the only African referee to officiate in the wrestling events of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
The Games will begin on April 4 and end on April 15.
Usman was upgraded in February at the African Wrestling Championships held in Port Harcourt.
He got upgraded after a coaching course organised by the United World Wrestling (UWW).
The Bauchi-born referee who also officiated at the 2014 Games in Glasgow told Newsmen that he was delighted with his being selected to officiate at the Games.
“This is great news not only to me but for the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF).
“This calls for more work from me and I promise to always be a good ambassador of Nigeria.
“The 2018 African Championships in Nigeria was a litmus test and I’m ready to get on the mat to officiate at more highly-ranked events,’’ he said.
Usman, who was the only Nigerian referee invited to officiate at the 2015 African Games in Congo, was picked as the best judge at the 2015 African Championship in Alexandria, Egypt
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