I lost U.S. Open judo title to new rules, says Disu

Disu, flanked by two American police officers, after his final match at the U.S. Open Judo Championship.

Excellence is ingrained in Nigeria Police Force’s DNA. The Force, which has been noted, the world over, as one of the best performing law enforcement agencies in peace keeping activities, has also been at the forefront of Nigeria’s sports development, even before the country gained independence from Britain.

Apart from giving the nation some of its finest international athletes, the Nigeria Police Force has also accounted for two of the country’s only three gold medals at the Olympic Games.

In fact, the Nigeria Police Force, through Chioma Ajunwa, won the country’s first individual gold medal at the Olympics in 1996. In 2000, the late Sunday Bada, a Superintendent in the Force, led a group of young Nigerians to win the country’s third gold medal at the Sydney edition of the Games. The country’s football team won the other gold medal in 1996.

Since then, the Nigerian Police Force has, through its yearly Games, thrown up fresh talented athletes to represent the country at international championships.

But, although the Force is acknowledged as one of the best incubators of talents for the country, it surpassed itself recently in the United States, where one of its top officers, Olatunji Disu, braved all odds to win a silver medal at the 33rd U.S. Open Judo Championship.

Disu, a 56-year-old deputy commissioner of police, against all odds, overcame the opposition to become the second best fighter in the veterans’ category of the U.S. Open.

Although this latest feat did not come as a surprise to those in the country’s judo circles, the audacity of the achievement reverberated around the world that even major international news