Paralympians complete their events in Rio setting a new record with eight gold medals

NIGERIA has enjoyed her best ever showing at a Paralympic Games at the Rio tournament which ends tomorrow after finishing 16th with a grand total of 12 medals that surpassed the achievements of the Sydney Paralympics in 2000.

 

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. In Rio, the team did better than this, winning eight gold, two silver and two bronze medals, proving that Nigeria is a world power in disabled sports.

 

Tomorrow, the Paralympic Games that many feared would be a fiasco closes but in the main, it turned into a triumph, despite the death of an Iranian cyclist. Eleven days of competition where China dominated the medals table, followed by Britain, Ukraine and the US, the last few events remaining include marathons and wheelchair rugby.

 

Several Nigerian Paralmypians put in outstanding performances in Rio, as for instance Flora Ugwunwa set a new world record in the women’s javelin F54 event.  Lucy Ejike, the Nigerian team captain, also set a new Paralympic and world record with a massive lift of 142kg.