Nigeria has won her third gold medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in Brazil through Team Nigeria’s Captain Lucy Ejike who also shattered the Paralympic and world
record to dominate the women’s -61kg event in powerlifting.
Power-lifter, Paul Kehinde, in the 65kg men’s category, had earlier on Friday lifted 218kg to outshine his competitors to win the country’s second gold medal after Roland Ezuruike opened the gold haul also in powerlifting on Friday.
Ejike began her campaign at the Riocentro Pavillion 2 on Sunday with a successful attempt at 136.0kg, which was a new Paralympic Record (PR) and World Record (WR).
However, that was just the beginning as she went on to set a superior mark of 138.0kg at her next attempt, before culminating with a massive lift of 142.0kg.
Egypt’s Fatma Omar finished in 2nd place with her lift of 140kg. China’s Yan Yang won the Bronze medal with a distant 128kg.
China’s Peng Hu (200kg) came second, while Egypt’s Shaaban Ibrahim (193kg) came third.
Ejike and Kehinde’s victory take Nigeria’s total medal tally to 5 – three gold and two silver medals which came from Latifat Tijani and Esther Onyema.
Already the performances of Nigeria’s physically-challenged athletes has drowned their main Olympics counterparts who only managed a football bronze medal throughout the competition.