Nigeria won a flurry of gold medals yesterday to shoot into the top 10 medals table of the Commonwealth Games ongoing at Gold Coast, Australia even breaking a world record in a stunning performance by Oyema Esther.
And the stars who achieved this gold rush for Team Nigeria are from para-powerlifting athletes.
Roland Ezuruike sparked the golden moment from the men’s lightweight where he dumped his compatriot, Paul Kehinde, who was before now holding the record to the silver with a total lift of 224.3kg. It was a glorious moment for a Nigerian 1, 2 finish as Kehinde Paul settled for silver while England’s Jawad Ali took the bronze.
Nigeria’s national anthem was played repeatedly as the green, white green fluttered in the sky.
Thereafter, the women ran riot producing scintillating performances to give Team Nigeria two gold and a silver medals in another, 2 finish in the Women’s Lightweight.
Esther snatched the gold after a horse-race with Ejike Lucy. Esther won gold as Lucy settled for silver while England was yet again condemned to bronze by the Nigerians.
The Nigerian dignitaries led by Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, Nigeria olympic Committee President Habu Gumel, who was wearing two caps as an executive member of the IOC and secretary Tunde Popoola as well as Permanent Secretary Ministry of Youth and Sports, Olusade Adesola, cheered joyfully during the events.
In the men’s heavyweight, Ibraheem Abdulazeez powered into yet another lift that added gold to the treasury of Team Nigeria. He left Malaysia and India to settle for silver and bronze respectively. With this sparkling performances, Team Nigeria has shot into the 9th position of the medal’s table with four gold, four silver medals to join South Africa on the 5th position with nine gold, six silver and six bronze medals as the top two African countries at the Games.
Nigeria had earlier won two silver medals from table tennis men’s team event and shot put.
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