NIGERIA's Paralympic team at the ongoing games in Rio de Janeiro looks set to put in the best performance ever in the history of the country participating in the tournament after picking up a seventh gold medal yesterday.
At the Sydney Paralympics which took place in Australia in 2000, Nigeria put in her best performance ever, bringing back seven gold, one silver and five bronze medals. Team Nigeria to the Rio games are on course to surpass this record having already picked up seven gold, two silver and one bronze medal.
Yesterday, Flora Ugwunwa set a new world record in the women’s javelin F54 event on to give Nigeria her seventh gold medal. She recorded a throw of 20.25 metres after six attempts to win the gold medal and take Nigeria’s tally to seven gold, two silver and one bronze medals.
On a day when Nigeria’s medals search was looking to be futile after some failure in the favourite hunting ground of power-lifting, the athletics event provided succour. Ms Ugwunwa beat a field of nine to set new Paralympic and world records, while Tunisia’s Hania Aidi won the silver medal with a throw of 18.88m.
South Africa’s Ntombizanele Situ completed the African sweep of the event’s medals by winning the bronze medal with a heave of 17.90m. Earlier in the day, Nigeria had been so close but still far from winning any medal on the day after some unsuccessful outings.
In powerlifting men’s 88kg event, Opeyemi Jegede could only place fifth, while Abdulazeez Ibrahim placed sixth in power-lifting men’s 97 kg tournament. With the games due to come to an end on Sunday, Nigeria needs just one more gold medal to surpass the Sydney record.
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