Nigeria Celebrates Historic Victory as Egypt Emerges Overall Champions

Excitement enveloped Team Nigeria’s camp at the weekend when the country’s women’s epee team recorded their first-ever victory in the African Fencing Championship to finish among the top five teams.

The five-day tournament held at Charterhouse, Lagos, ended at the weekend with Egypt emerging as the overall champions. But Team Nigeria’s happiness stemmed from their victory over the Benin Republic in a classification bout that catapulted the country to the fifth position.

The girls, comprising Somtochukwu Eribenne, Sara Idongesit, and Adebodunirin Thomas, rose from their quarterfinal defeat by Algeria to beat Benin Republic 45-40.

Speaking after the fight, an elated Thomas described the victory as a morale booster saying: “We are excited to win our first game and also finish in the top five in the event. We worked together as a team, and our coach helped us to put up a good fight against our opponents. This will surely help our confidence going into the next competition.”

Egypt continued its dominance in the men’s team foil, defeating Angola in a one-sided final. The Egyptian team, featuring 2025 men’s foil champion Abdelrahman Tolba, Karim Medhat, Mohamed Hamza, and Sief Elghayesh, cruised past Nigeria 45-9 in the semifinals before overpowering Angola 45-23 in the final.

Angola, led by Tomas Pedro, Valter Barros, Francisco Manuel, and Luis Macedo, earned their place in the final after a dramatic 45-44 win over Algeria in the semifinals. Despite a strong start by Algeria, Angola mounted a spirited comeback to secure a narrow victory and their first podium finish.

In the women’s team epee final, Egypt was awarded the gold medal when the match against Algeria was halted at 6-6. Algeria refused to continue, resulting in a P. Black decision in Egypt’s favour.

Egypt also triumphed in the women’s team sabre, where Alanoud Hegazy, Nada Hafez, Nagwa Nofal, and Renad Eldoksh led the team to a 45-40 victory over Algeria.

At the end of the competition, Egypt topped the overall medals table with 11 gold, five silver, and five bronze medals. Kenya followed in second place with one gold, while Tunisia secured third with two silver and two bronze medals.

Algeria was fourth with one silver and six bronze medals, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa each claimed one silver and one bronze, while Angola earned one silver.

Morocco, Cape Verde, and Senegal each took home one bronze medal. The five-day, 12-event tournament, hosted by the Nigeria Fencing Federation at Charterhouse, Lagos, featured over 120 fencers from 18 countries.

Source: The Guardian