National armwrestling champion, Oluwatobiloba Stephen (Big Steve) has revealed several factors that helped him look beyond merely showing his physical attributes and strength as a hobby into making a profession out of them.
Sports247 reports that the highly emotional and deeply devout Christian, who is fair-skinned, well built and very tall, based his success story mostly on the favour of God in his life, aa he gets many unexpected opportunities and makes the best of them.
‘Big Steve’ disclosed this and more while featuring during Athlete’s Corner segment on ‘Inside Naija Sports,’ a live streaming programme on YouTube from the studio of Sports247 Naija TV, starting at 11:45am every Friday.
He began by revealing that his first contact with armwrestling happened on a certain day when a friend invited him over to have a feel of the muscle flexing sport, and he has not looked back since.
He recalled, “My journey into armwrestling began when I met a colleague at the sports centre and he told me about it. He told me that he always saw my resilience in power training and how I put hard work into physical exercise.
“Right from childhood, I had always been a lover of things that require strength, and I believed that I could go far with my power, through the grace of God.”
Oluwatobiloba further noted that a coincidence that occurred at the time he started out actively in armwrestling was the advent of a competition, which made it possible for him to focus fully on the sport from the word go.
He recounted further, “Fortunately, just after he introduced me to armwrestling, by the grace of God, there was a major competition in that week, and I went in for it. That was in the year 2021.
“It was the National Armwrestling Championship at Teslim Balogun Stadium. I went for it gallantly, and I took third position. I felt that I had performed well, and I told myself it was really something good.”
The smooth-talking athlete and social personality, who prides himself as a ‘Sacred Son of God,’ revealed further that his surge through the ranks of Nigeria’s armwrestling sector came through a chain of amazing victories he got.
‘Big Steve’ added: “I continued with extra attention to training actively in armwrestling. In 2022, the president and board of the federation hosted the Armwrestling National Open Championship.
“I went in for it, and I defeated all of Nigeria’s top armwrestlers of that time. I defeated them on my left hand, but they destroyed me on my right hand.
“I felt really good again, and I told myself that I should continue in this sport. That was how the passion I had for it began to expand into deep professional zeal.”
He concluded by revealing that his decision to consider the sport as a profession was boosted by several victories he was able to achieve so early in his career as an armwrestler.
“I thank God for how I started and for where he has brought me today. God has taken me far in armwrestling, and I am grateful for what He has done for me.
“The point when I realised that it was more than hobby for me was the day I defeated the top armwrestler with my left hand. As of then, I didn’t know anything about the techniques of the sport and how to convert your arm’s energy into tactics.
Oluwatobiloba reminisced: “I was basically at that time doing bodybuilding training only. But all of that changed when I defeated the former national champion.
“After that victory, which came so early in my career, my passion for armwrestling triggered and skyrocketed. I started training more in armwrestling, and it became a bigger passion for me.”
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