Daniel Igali

Barladei Daniel Igali (born February 3, 1974 in Eniwari , Bayelsa , Nigeria ) is a former Nigerian or Canadian wrestler . Olympic champion 2000 and world champion 1999 in free style in lightweight.

Career

Daniel Igali was born as Igali Baraladei as one of 21 children of the Nigerian people of the Ijaw who live in the Niger Delta . As a child he began wrestling in the traditional way of the Ijaw people, which is similar to the Greco-Roman style. There is wrestling in a meadow and the wrestling is accompanied by a drum.

At the age of 16 he turned to Olympic wrestling and in the same year he became Nigerian bantamweight champion in Greco-Roman. Style. In 1991 he represented his country at the All African Games in Cairo . He wrestled there again in Greco-Roman. Style in featherweight and took 2nd place behind the Egyptian Ahmed Kamel Muhamed. In 1993 he wrestled at the African championships in Pretoria . He came in the Greco-Roman style in featherweight again behind Ahmed Kamel Muhamed on the 2nd place and was in the same weight class African champion in free style with a victory in the final battle over Tjonke van Rensburg from South Africa .

In 1994 he was again African champion in free style featherweight in Cairo. He won there ahead of Mumgoma Sien from Ivory Coast a . Abdel Ashraf from Egypt. In 1994 Igali Baraladei also represented his country Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria , Canada . He started in featherweight in free style, but could only take 9th place there. After these games he decided to stay in Canada. After a difficult early years, he was adopted by a Canadian family and took the name Daniel Igali. He began studying at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby and became a member of the Mountain Wrestling Club Burnaby . In 1997 he became Canadian champion in the free style, on which he now focused, in lightweight and accepted into the Canadian national team. He received Canadian citizenship in 1998.

He was trained by David McKay in 1998 to the point that he was able to compete for Canada in the lightweight world championship in Tehran . In Tehran he defeated Almasbek Askarow from Kyrgyzstan and Mariusz Dabrowski from Poland , then lost to Zaza Zazirow from Ukraine , but defeated the European champion Emzarios Bentinidis from Greece . He was thus in the fight for the bronze medal , which he lost to Lincoln McIlravy from the United States.

In 1999 he started at the World Cup in Spokane and finished there after victories over Ali Akbar Nejad from Iran , Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet from Cuba and Jens Gündling from Germany and a defeat against Lincoln McIlravy in 2nd place. At the Pan American Games this year in Winnipeg he came in third behind Lincoln McIlravy and Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet. At the 1999 World Championships in Ankara , he surprised all the competition in the lightweight and defeated Jens Gündling, Mario Hartmann from Austria , Ahmat Al-Osta from Syria , Emzarios Bentinidis and, in the final, Lincoln McIlravy for the first time and thus became world champion in the lightweight.

In 2000, Daniel Igali was very focused on the Olympic Games in Sydney . He started again in the lightweight and won with victories over Emzarios Bentinidis , Amir Tavakolian from Iran , Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet, Lincoln McIlravy and Arsen Gitinow from Russia , over whom he was 7: 4 techn. Points won, including the Olympic gold medal . He was the first wrestler born in Black Africa to become Olympic and world champion . Before him, only Egyptian wrestlers had made it out of Africa .

Daniel Igali continued his career after Sydney until the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens . At the 2001 World Championships in Sofia , he defeated in the lightweight u. a. Irbek Walentinowitsch Farnijew from Russia , but lost in his third fight against Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet, with which he was eliminated and only finished 9th. In 2002 he started again at the Commonwealth Games, which took place in Manchester , and won the welterweight division before Sunday Opiah from his former motherland Nigeria and Reinold Ozolins from Australia . At the 2002 World Cup in Tehran , he failed in the welterweight division after winning two fights again in his third fight against Volodimir Sirotin from Ukraine , against whom he was just 3: 4 techn. Was subject to points. He came in 5th place.

The same picture emerged at the 2003 World Cup in New York . Daniel Igali won his first two fights, only to lose again in the third fight against Gennady Lalijew from Kazakhstan . This time these results only reached 11th place.

In 2004 he won Daniel Igali with a 4th place in the qualification tournament in Bratislava, the right to participate in the Olympic Games in Athens . In Athens, too, he won his first two fights over Yusup Abdussalomow from Tajikistan and Elnur Aslanow from Azerbaijan , but he lost to Iván Fundora from Cuba and thus reached 6th place.

After these games, Daniel Igali ended his wrestling career and completed his studies in criminology at the Simon Fraser University. In the years in Canada he has never forgotten or denied his Nigerian origins. He founded a society to support the needy population in Nigeria, the "Igali Foundation Inc.", of which he is honorary president. This company uses donations to build schools in Nigeria.

He was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in August 2012 for his services to wrestling .

International success

year	space	competition	style	Weight class
1991	2.	All African Games in Cairo	GR	feather	behind Ahmed Kamel Mohamed, Egypt , in front of Devrangi El-Kader, Algeria
1993	3.	African Championship in Pretoria	GR	feather	behind Ahmed Kamel Mohamed u. Faouzi Kharrazi, Tunisia
1993	1.	African Championship in Pretoria	F.	feather	before Tjonke van Rensburg, South Africa a . Faouzi Kharrazi
1994	1.	African championship in Cairo	F.	feather	in front of Mumgoma Sien, Ivory Coast a . Abdel Ashraf, Egypt
1994	9.	Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada	F.	feather	Winner: Marty Calder , Canada ahead of John Melling, England a . Haris Barsegiani, Cyprus
1997	1.	Casino Grand Prix in Wals-Siezenheim / Austria	F.	Light	voir Tibor Copik, Slovakia a . Zoltan Hunyadi, Hungary
1998	11.	Grand Prix of Germany in Leipzig	F.	Light	with a victory over Andreas Zabel, Germany a. a loss to Christoph Freyer, Switzerland
1998	4th	World Cup in Tehran	F.	Light	with victories over Almasbek Askarow , Kyrgyzstan a . Mariusz Dabrowski, Poland , a defeat against Zaza Zazirow , Ukraine , a victory over Emzarios Bentinidis , Greece a . a loss to Lincoln McIlravy , USA
1999	1.	Grand Prix of Germany in Leipzig	F.	Light	before Ivan Todorow , Bulgaria , Ivan Diaconu , Moldova a . Jens Gündling , Germany
1999	2.	World Cup in Spokane	F.	Light	with victories over Ali Akbar Nejad , Iran , Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet , Cuba , a defeat against Lincoln McIlravy and the like. a victory over Jens Gündling
1999	3.	Pan American Games in Winnipeg	F.	Light	behind Lincoln McIlravy u. Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet
1999	1.	World Cup in Ankara	F.	Light	with victories over Jens Gündling, Mario Hartmann, Austria , Ahmat Al-Osta , Syria , Almasbek Askarow, Emzarios Bentinidis u. Lincoln McIlravy
2000	gold	OS in Sydney	F.	Light	with victories over Emzarios Bentinidis , Amir Tavakolian , Iran, Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet, Lincoln McIlravy and others. Arsen Gitinow , Russia
2001	9.	World Cup in Sofia	F.	Light	with victories over Talaut Jekschenow, Kyrgyzstan a . Irbek Walentinowitsch Farnijew , Russia a. a loss to Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet
2002	1.	Manitoba Open in Winnipeg	F.	Welter	before Paul Harrison et al. David Kooperberg, bde. Canada
2002	4th	"David Schultz" Memorial in Colorado Springs	F.	Welter	behind Donny Pritzlaff, Ramico Blackmon u. Casey Cunningham, all USA
2002	2.	Grand Prix of Germany in Leipzig	F.	Welter	behind Alexander Leipold , in front of Dominik Zeh , bde. Germany
2002	1.	Commonwealth Games in Manchester	F.	Welter	before Sunday Opiah, Nigeria u. Reinold Ozolins, Australia
2002	5.	World Cup in Tehran	F.	Welter	with victories over Batuya Batchuluun, Mongolia a . Felix Polianidis , Greece a . a loss to Volodimir Sirotin , Ukraine
2003	1.	Canada Cup in Guelph (Ontario)	F.	Welter	before Suji Maan, India , Andy Hrovat , USA a. Zoltan Hunyadi, Canada
2003	11.	World Cup in New York	F.	Welter	with victories over Si Riguleng, China a . Esteban Vera Delgado, Puerto Rico a . a loss to Gennady Laliyev , Kazakhstan
2004	2.	Canada Cup in Guelph ( Ontario )	F.	Welter	behind Iván Fundora , Cuba, in front of Hati Habibi, Iran
2004	4th	Olympic qualification tournament in Bratislava	F.	Welter	behind Joe E. Williams , USA, Iván Fundora, Cuba a. Araik Geworgjan , Armenia
2004	6th	OS in Athens	F.	Welter	with victories over Yusup Abdussalomow , Tajikistan a . Elnur Aslanow , Azerbaijan a . a loss to Iván Fundora

Note: OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, F = freestyle, featherweight, up to 62 kg, lightweight, up to 1996 up to 68 kg, from 1997 to 2001 up to 69 kg, welterweight, from 2002 to 74 kg body weight

swell

• Trade journal Der Ringer ,
• Website of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
• Canadian Wrestling Association website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ USA's Dan Gable among seven to be inducted to FILA Hall of Fame in London, England, August 3 , accessed April 16, 2017

Web links

• Profile of Daniel Igali at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Daniel Igali in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait of Daniel Igali (English)