Elizabeth Anyanacho is indeed in a good mood to right the wrong of her first-round exit at Tokyo 2020 when the taekwondo event begins on August 7 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France.
The 25-year-old is the first Nigerian female taekwondist to compete in her second consecutive Olympic Games and will join 127 other athletes that will compete at the Grand Palais strip in the French capital.
As Nigeria’s sole flagbearer in the taekwondo event of Paris 2024, the African Games champion will contend with 15 other athletes in the women’s -67kg.
“I am in good mood and shape for the games and now I train twice daily in order not to overwork myself before the games. All my programmes have been going well and I am optimistic about the games because things are going on well with me in my training camp,” Anyanacho told Sportsafricana.com from Germany.
The athlete has been at the Taekwondo Competence Center (TCC), Friedrichshafen in Germany for more than 12 months as one of the beneficiaries of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) scholarship.
In her weight category, she will contend with African champion Ruth Gbagbi of Cote d’Ivoire who is one of the top medal contenders.
Also in the fray for the podium are Belgium’s Sarah Chaari, Jordan’s Juiyana Al-Sadeq, Serbia’s Aleksandra Perisic, China’s Song Jie, and Brazil’s Caroline Santos who are the top-rated athletes in the world who picked their tickets to Paris through their world rating.
13 African countries will compete in the taekwondo event of the Paris Olympic Games with Tunisia having the highest number of competitors with four athletes jostling for honours.
Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Lesotho, Guinea-Bissau, Gabon, and Gambia all present an athlete, while Niger Republic, Burkina Faso, and Morocco have two athletes each. Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire will be represented by three athletes each in the taekwondo event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.