Nigeria’s women’s epee team celebrated a historic milestone at the 23rd African Fencing Championships, securing their first-ever win in the competition to finish in the top five.
The five-day tournament, hosted at Charterhouse, Lagos, ended on Sunday with Egypt emerging as the overall champion, amassing the highest number of gold medals.
After a quarterfinal loss to Algeria, the Nigerian team comprising Somtochukwu Eribenne, Sara Idongesit, and Adebodurin Thomas rallied to end their campaign on a high.
In the classification match for fifth place, they displayed resilience, and teamwork to defeat the Benin Republic 45-40, giving the home crowd something to cheer about.
An elated Thomas described the victory as a morale booster.
He said: “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 after 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, adding another gold to their tally.
Egypt topped the overall medal table with an impressive haul of 11 gold, 5 silver, and 5 bronze medals.
Kenya followed in second place with one gold, while Tunisia secured third with two silver, and two bronze medals. Algeria finished 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.
