I’m too stiff for romance – Igali

Posted by admin Headlines, Sports, Track & Field Sunday, March 6th, 2011

He wields the magic of leadership and oozes appeal, the traits that endear him to the opposite sex. Yet, Olympic gold medallist, Daniel Igali, says he finds it difficult being romantic.
For a man, who deals with people from all works of life in his capacity as a motivational speaker, great sports personality with the physique that makes ladies drooling over him, Igali is practically unaware of his special magnetic charm that pulls his admirers to him like bees to honey.

Recently, Sunday Sunsports had a peep into the romantic life of the man, who was among the 50 great personalities in the country that were honoured by President Goodluck Jonathan during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Nigeria. Always humble, respectful and ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need of his assistance, Igali revealed that his earnestness of purpose in charting courses that would bring lasting changes to the youth of the Niger Delta, clearly marks him as a man without a romantic bone in his body.

“I’m too intense and too serious with everything I do to be romantic. I guess, I don’t have the romantic genes in me,” Igali began.
“Romance, like love, is in the eyes of the beholder. I could be romantic to some people and appear the opposite to others, it depends on the way you want to assess it. I know that I’m a very caring person; I love to impact positively on people’s lives in any way I can. But as for romance, I practically don’t know how to go about it.
“When it comes to clothing, I’m a jeans, sneaker and jacket kind of guy. Although I don’t have any particular design, I buy what suits me. While I won’t be caught dead looking shabby, I like looking good and smart all the time. “I enjoy playing soccer, dancing at the right time and watching my beloved Arsenal playing the round leather game.”

Though his best comes out of wrestling, a sport that has made him both popular and wealthy, Igali has been left a sad fellow with the shocking revelation that host of this year’s All Africa Games (AAG), Mozambique, has dropped his beloved sport from the Games for reasons best known to it. He was jolted over Mozambique’s decision to yank off wrestling from the AAG billed for September in Maputo.
Purely a case of ‘he who pays the piper dictates the tune’, South Africa, the country Mozambique is relying heavily on to provide some of the facilities needed for the Games, impressed it upon the host country to strike out wrestling and power lifting from among the sports to be competed for at this year’s AAG.

Nigeria, and indeed, other African countries are now denied the chance of hauling home medals because of the hatched plot by South Africa to hug the limelight in Mozambique. This development has been sending shock waves to African wrestlers and Igali has described it “as a selfish move to discourage the growth of the sport that is destined to earn Africa respect at the London 2012 Olympics.”
Igali pointed out that in recognition of Africa’s growing influence in the mats sport, the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) has set up two wrestling centres in Africa. He disclosed that he has gotten in touch with the FILA President, Raphael Martinetti, as well as African Council of Associated Wrestling (CALA) President, Mohammed Ibnou Zahir, and he is resolute in getting every wrestler on the continent involved in the fight to stop the selfish interest of South Africa and Mozambique.

“I can’t express my disappointment with Mozambique and South Africa. Igali said. “This is the first time in my adult life that I’m hearing that wrestling won’t be part of the AAG.
“I don’t think it’s a vendetta against Nigeria alone because there’re too many powerful countries like Egypt, Cameroon and others, which garner lots of medals from wrestling.

“It’s very upsetting that a sport that has a future in the Olympics won’t be on display at the AAG. Wrestling is too much of a traditional sport in Africa not to be included in the Games. In fact, it should be made compulsory at the African level because it’s a key ingredient of our culture.
“I’m not giving up yet, I’ve put a call across to FILA president and I’ll ensure that every wrestler is involved to write protest letters to condemn this madness,” Igali vowed.

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Nigeria’s wrestling team was among the top teams in India with a haul of three gold, three silver and seven bronze medals.

-Sunwp_posts