Onye Wins Team Nigeria’s First Track & Field Gold Medal

• Nwosu, Omolayo add two more power-lifting gold

Keno Edhowo

Team Nigeria’s good run at the ongoing 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, Brazil continued yesterday with Lauritta Onye winning gold in Shot Put. It is Nigeria’s first gold medal from the track and field.

Competing in the women’s shot put f40 event on the Day-four of the Rio Paralympics, Onye first heaved 7.83m that saw her break her world record of 7.72m set at the IPC World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar in 2015.

Her second throw was 7.54m. She however went one centimeter further on her third attempt.
Onye’s fourth attempt of 8.40m sent Team Nigeria camp into jubilation mood as it secured the fifth gold medal for the country.

Onye’s medal is Nigeria’s seventh at the Rio Paralympic Games.
Also yesterday, Ndidi Nwosu defeated the defending champion to win women’s -73kg Powerlifting event gold medal

Nwosu was set for the bronze medal before she stepped up in her very last attempt, lifting 140kg to equal the Paralympics Record (PR) and usurp France’s Souhad Ghazouani for the gold.
Another Nigerian, Bose Omolayo broke her own World Record (WR) and set a new one of 138kg to win gold medal.

Earlier, Team Nigeria’s captain, Lucy Ejike, broke the Paralympic and world record three successive times, to win the women’s -61kg event in power-lifting. Her successful attempt at 136.kg on Sunday set a new Paralympic record and world record.

Ejike went on to set a bigger mark of 138kg, before lifting a massive 142kg.
Another power-lifter, Paul Kehinde, had earlier at the weekend given Team Nigeria her second gold medal of the Games. Kehinde in the -65kg men’s category, lifted 218kg to beat his rivals to the gold medal.

His gold came after Roland Ezuruike had on Friday won Nigeria’s first gold in Rio, also in power-lifting.

China’s Peng Hu (200kg) finished second, while Egypt’s Shaaban Ibrahim (193kg) won the bronze medal.

Latifat Tijani won silver in the women’s power-lifting -45kg on Friday, with Esther Oyema adding another silver in the women’s power-lifting -55kg category on Saturday.

As at press time last night, Nigeria was listed tenth on the medals table with six gold, two silver and one bronze.