Olympic bronze medallist Chika Chukwumerije has been elected to the board of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation ©Getty Images

Beijing 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Chika Chukwumerije has been elected as an athlete representative on the board of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF).

The elections were held at the Abuja National Stadium with Chukwumerije defeating opponent Ahmed Mohammed by 18 votes to 16.

Chukwumerije is the only Nigerian taekwondo player to have won an Olympic medal.

He won one of the two bronze medal matches against Uzbekistan's Akmal Irgashev in the over-80 kilogram category in the Chinese capital.

Chukwumerije also won the All-Africa Games title in Algiers in 2007. 

According to New Mail, Chukwumerije commended the NTF secretary general, Taiwo Orssi, for the "democratically conducted election, and pledged to represent the players to the best of his ability".

Chika Chukwumerije, left, won bronze at Beijing 2008 ©Getty Images
Chika Chukwumerije, left, won bronze at Beijing 2008 ©Getty Images

Alhaji Sani Lawal, a three-time Nigerian University Games Association gold medallist, was also elected after earning 22 votes to defeat Peter Emmanuel and Osita Egwim, who each received six.

Despite Chukwumerije's bronze medal, recent success has been limited with Nigeria not represented at Rio 2016 despite qualifying a competitor for the three Olympics prior to that.

The country's team failed to perform to expectations at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Morocco in February 2016.

As a result, a new competition was launched in a bid to find fresh talent.