Chika Chukwumerije, a 2008 Beijing Olympics taekwondo bronze medallist, on Thursday sought the prayers of Nigerians for a successful outing at the 2012 London Olympics which begins on July 27.

Chukwumerije told Tidesports in a telephone interview that his target was to surpass his achievement four years ago at the Beijing Games. The Olympian said the sport would be keenly contested at the London Games, adding that he had stepped up training to ensure excellent outing at the event.

“I know it’s not going to be easy, but I am working to make it easy. At the same time, I truly need your prayers believing that God will grant me favour to win a gold medal,” he said.

The heavyweight taekwondoist blamed his injury at the Olympics qualifier in Egypt in January on his opponent’s tactics of fighting out of the World Taekwondo Federation rule.

“I must confess that the qualifiers were quite challenging despite my winning, but the injury really affected me because my opponent was unfair.

“However, I am still focused,” Chukwumerije said. He commended the National Sports Commission (NSC) for approving a training tour of South Korea to further intensify their preparations ahead of the Games.

“Korea is the home of taekwondo, so I believe our training tour there will have lots of positive effect on us, which is a source of encouragement from the NSC,” Chukwumerije said.

According to him, the training tour will expose the taekwondoists to modern training facilities.