Judo Can Make It to Los Angeles 2028, Says Okeniyi

Former NUGA Games champion and accounting graduate of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Rotimi Okeniyi is passionate about martial arts, especially judo and sambo, and the UK-based certified sambo coach is ready to improve lots of the sports in Nigeria with an initiative to organise a three-day tournament in Osun State, South West zone of Nigeria later this month.  Apart from planning to distribute modern equipment to the participants most of the athletes would be catered for during the tournament by the organisers and Okeniyi believes this would inspire Nigerian athletes to aim for qualifications for the 2028 Olympic Games in the United States.

Rotimi Okeniyi’s passion for martial arts never dwindled even after migrating to the UK and he decided to follow his passion where he is now a judo instructor at the University of Manchester.

However, despite living in the UK for years, Okeniyi still wants the best for the country of his birth and this prompted him to kick-start a three-day tournament that will help to increase interest in judo and sambo which he believes would inspire Nigerian athletes to aim for spots at the 2028 Olympic Games.

“I started judo in the early 1990s in Kaduna state Nigeria I have been opportune to train with one of the best coaches in Nigeria known as Sensei Umar Musa in Zaria. I participated in several Nigeria University Games (NUGA) for ABU Zaria where I won medals for the school. I also represented Delta and Rivers States at the National Sports Festival,” Okeniyi said.

“Before moving finally to the UK, I first traveled to Ghana after my National Youth Service Corps and I was part of the Ghanaian team at a few Africa Championships in Cote d’Ivoire and Togo where I also won a gold medal. I later moved to the

UK after a few successful years in Ghana where I learnt the art of Sambo,” he added.

On getting to the UK, Okeniyi decided to embrace sambo and he became a three-time British champion and also assisted in coaching the Nigerian team to major tournaments especially the 2023 African Games in Ghana.

“I decided to introduce the sambo to the Nigeria society and the Nigerian team has had a very successful outing in Ghana by winning a gold a silver and a bronze medal,” he said.

On why he decided to stage a national tournament in judo and sambo, he said: “I decided to organise this event to popularise the sport and also assist the southwest states with training equipment which I have been doing for years now and part of the plans is to build one of the best training facilities in Nigeria and in the southwest. Osun being my state, I also want Sambo to be popular in the state as well.”

Pained by Nigeria’s no-show in the judo event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Okeniyi said: “I think we have the resources in terms of athletes to quality for the Olympic Games with the availability of necessary support and that’s my motive and my aim for this clinic and competition. To help the participants coming for the event, we have decided to provide them with free transportation, boarding, and feeding for the three days of the event.

“As a body, we are not expecting any financial benefit from this event but our mission is to impact the athletes with the newest technique and resources to excel in the sport. We are very glad that most of the states have submitted their entries as we are expecting 12 athletes from each participating state. Our target is to organise this event annually and we want to make sure we are at the next Olympic Games because we have been absent for a long time,” he enthused.