Taekwondo in Nigeria - Hall of Fame
Below are some of Nigeria best Taekwondo Players who performed exceeding well in various championships, and represented the country in continental and intercontinental games.
Ashiru George is a professional and retired Taekwondo master in Nigeria. He had his education at Ijebu Ode Grammar School, Ogun State, Federal Government College, Kaduna, University of Lagos and Middlesex University.
He won a silver medal for Nigeria at the 4th All Africa Games in Kenya in 1987. He was conferred as the Best National Player and Best national Referee at the Olympic Games. He was the Team manager to the Nigeria Taekwondo Olympic Team at the 2008 Olympic Game in Beijing.
He is been listed in the World Taekwondo Federation Hall of Fame, apart from sports he has highly achieved in other areas of his life. He was a Nigerian television presenter on NTA Youth Scene from 1988 to 1990 and also the founder of the Ultimate Gold/Love Foundations and the University of Lagos Taekwondo Club when he was at the University of Lagos Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Vanguard Newspaper named him one of the 40 young leaders of the future in 1995 due to his numerous achievements. As an entrepreneur, he led a body of businessmen which is the members of the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce (Kaduna) to the World Trade Expo in Detroit, USA. Prior to the same year, he organized a National seminar with the same chamber with the theme “Nigeria Can Compete”.
Mr George has recorded so many laurels for Nigeria since the history of Taekwondo. He specializes in the light and welterweight category and has emerged Nigerian Taekwondo Champion several times.
He was Africa’s first ever 7th Degree black belt international master instructor and international Referee Class A as was confirmed by the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF). He is the Technical Advisor of the Official Taekwondo Hall of Fame and was awarded a Commendation Certificate by the President of the Kukkiwon in the year 2011 for promoting Taekwondo all over the world.
Chika Chukwumerije is a professional male athlete in Nigeria birthed December 30, 1983 in Lagos State, he is the son of late Senator Uche Chukwumerije.
He graduated from Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering in 2005. He competed in taekwondo for three subsequent Games organized by the Nigerian University Games Association winning bronze in 2000, gold in 2002 and 2004.
He was a national champion in 2002 and obtained the award till 2011 and yet not defeated for consecutive nine years. He recorded his first continental win at the 2003 All-Africa Games winning a bronze medal in the heavyweight male category.
In the year 2004 he was qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens but lost to Paschal Gentil a French taekwondo practitioner. He was a gold medalist at the 2007 All-Africa Games which qualified him to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing claiming a bronze medal.
In the year 2009, he was awarded an Outstanding Male African Olympic Player in New Jersey making him a member of World’s Taekwondo Hall of Fame.
Chukwumerije also made headway in the 2011 All-African Games claiming a silver medal in the +80Kg category which earned him a silver medal at the competition. He competed in the men’s +80Kg division at the 2012 Summer Olympics although he did not make it to the finals.
That same year in the month of October Nigeria hosted the first international taekwondo championships in order to promote the Chukwumerije Sports Foundation mission of raising professional taekwondo practitioners from West Africa by exposing them to training camps, training equipment and preparing them for international tournaments.
Other Taekwondo players include Emmanuel Oghenebo, Isah Adamu Abubakar, Nwosu Chinazom, Ifeoluwa Ajayi, Shola Olowookere, Segun Olushola, Chisom Ndima, Happiness Adirimo, Bukola Ogunnusi, Maryjane Ofuadinma, Folake Abdullahi, Wisdom Efosa, Henry Nxelu, Abubakar Adamu, Josephine Esuku, Faith Nwankwo, Sekinat Adebisi, Vivian Ndu, Juliet Dennis, Muhammed Ghali, Nduka Edwin, Aburime Santos, and Sunday Onofe.
