By Tony Ubani, Maputo
SONS of Abia Politician, Uche Chukwumerije will take the centre stage on Wednesday when the Taekwondo event of the 10th All Africa Games begin.

Uche Chukwumerije jnr is the captain of Nigeria’s Taekwondo while his younger brother, Chika Chukwumerije who shot into reckoning after winning a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympic Games is also hot on the heels of his brother for a double assault on Africa.

There have been concerns over the health of Chika Chukwumerije following a horrific injury he suffered in his second round match at the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. The two brothers who worked like siamese twins in training yesterday sparkled with ferocious kicks and their defence mechanisms were beautiful.

“I’m ready to go”, Chika said in the swealtering heat of Mozambique that hit 32 degrees yesterday. “It’s not going to be easy because all athletes are prepared. But, I ‘m going to give it my all”, he said with an infectious smile. While he talked, his elder brother, Uche continued to perfect his strategies for their events with Temi Jegede.

President of Taekwondo Fedration, Dr Jonathan Nnaji said that the team spirit in camp was high noting that there were no injuries.

The Chukwumerijes whose father is a high profile politician and a black belter in Taekwondo are tipped for honours in the African Games.

CAA nullifies tripple jump gold

The Confederation of African Athletics has nullified the Tripple Jump(women)at event after the protests filed by Nigeria, Algeria, Senegal and Uganda at the ongoing All Africa Games in Mozambique.

As a result, the event will now come up on the 15th of September.

In a release by the committee Monday, the committee based its decision on the grounds that the protests from Nigeria, Algeria, Senegal and Uganda were not in conformity with IAAF Rule 146(2) as the result was not officially pronounced before the protest were made.

The Appeal committee noted that “the ATO states that the event was not properly conducted by the technical officials who in his opinion, were not competent.

The Nigerian athlete was first in the event with a jump of 14.47. Soon after the event, Algeria, Uganda and Senegal protested that she faulted in her jump and that she should be disqualified. Their protests resulted in the withdrawal of the result, a development which caused Nigeria to appeal.

President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Solomon Ogba expressed happiness over the decision to have the finalists jump again, saying it was in Nigeria’s favour. “It is victory for Nigeria. I’m happy. Justice has been done,” he said.