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African bobsleigher poised to break world championship barrier

Nigeria's Simidele Adeagbo will be first to compete in bobsleigh at the World Championships in Germany.

You wouldn't normally associate Nigeria with winter sports - or Africa, in fact - but that is something that Winter Olympian Simidele Adeagbo wants to change.

She's already made history in her sport - In 2018, she became the first Nigerian to compete at the Winter Olympics, and became the first black female Olympian in the sport of skeleton.

And this week, she is competing at the bobsleigh World Championships in Winterburg in Germany - at a track where two years ago she became the first African to win an international bobsleigh race when she claimed the monobob title.

Adeagbo told Newsday's Sports presenter, Rebecca Adams, how she felt to be back.

"This track has very special memories for me, making history by becoming the first African athlete to win an international bobsleigh race there. I'm the only Nigerian who's qualified for the World Championship this season. I feel a great privilege... to take this huge step forward for Africa"

"The international bobsleigh federation has just celebrated a hundred years of existence and in that century there has been no African athlete in bobsleigh to compete at the World Championship. It took a whole century to break this barrier."

(Pic: Winter Olympian Simidele Adeagbo; Credit: Getty Images)

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