Aminat Idrees, who is eight months pregnant, is unquestionably one dedicated athlete. The 26-year-old did not let being with child stand in her way as she took home the gold in Taekwondo at the ongoing National Sports Festival.
An inspiring outing by heavily pregnant Aminat Idrees who won a gold medal for Lagos at the ongoing National Sports Festival in Benin, Edo State.
Aminat Idrees who is 8 months pregnant won gold in the Mixed Poomsae category in Taekwondo pic.twitter.com/rr4fxJCfMs
— National Sports Festival 2020 (@nsf_edo) April 5, 2021
The Nigerian athlete won in the Mixed Poomsae category in the popular martial art. Organizers of the sports event described her achievements as “inspiring.”
Idrees commented on her win with CNN.
“It’s such a privilege for me. I just decided to give it a try after training a couple of times…It feels really good.”
She added, “Before I got pregnant, I have always enjoyed training, so it didn’t seem different with pregnancy.”
Idrees, as seen in the above Twitter video, demonstrated different combat techniques during her routine. Additionally, she also picked up other medals in a non-combat simulated category of Taekwondo known as Poomsae.
Although many have marveled at Idrees’ accomplishment, there have been others that have been very critical of the athlete.
One Twitter user, wrote, “This (is) rather sickening than Inspiring.”
While another commenter said, “This is how they get themselves into problems and stress maternity staff for preventable problems.”
Yet, on the the side of the coin, many social media users came to her defense.
One of those users commented, “I love the way she made the sequencing so easy to the eyes. Awesome performance. Let those with the ignorant comments bury their heads in shame. Poomsae is not a fight but a tactical combination of movements against imaginary attacks.”
Idress herself took the opportunity to educate the masses about the martial art, helping people realize that there are many forms of Taekwondo and she was not in any danger.
“A lot of people don’t understand what Taekwondo is actually about. I feel this is an avenue to educate people about this. Taekwondo has two branches: the combat sport and Poomsae — which is a form of exercise…just displaying the hand and leg techniques in Taekwondo. I participated in Poomsae event,” she told CNN.
She continued, “I felt there wasn’t much risk attached to it, so I decided to give it a try. My doctor, as well as the organizing body of the games certified me fit to participate in the non-contact sport.”
Congratulations, Aminat. This is truly an amazing accomplishment!
