August 28, (THEWILL) – Team Nigeria picked up its second medal at the ongoing 2020 Paralympics Games in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday as six-time Paralympian Lucy Ejike finished on the bronze medal podium in the -61kg powerlifting event of the competition.
As THEWILL reported on Thursday, the Nigerian contingent to the Games kicked off its medal honours when Latifat Tijani made the country’s first gold medal podium finish in the women’s 45 kg powerlifting with her winning 107 kg lift.
Ejike, continuing on that path, had started impressively to lead the field of athletes in taking firm control of the event with her 130kg first attempt lift. However, she could not lift 135kg on her first and second attempts, as she was flagged red by all three judges on both occasions, ceding her lead to her opponents.
The pole position that Ejike held was taken by an old arch-rival Amalia Perez of Mexico who lifted 131kg in her final attempt. That successful lift was an improvement on the Mexican’s earlier lifts in the 125kg and the 126kg on Perez’s first and second attempts.
Pushing Ejike down the pecking order was Uzbekistan’s Kuziena Ruza. The 27-year-old finished with a silver final lift of 130kg. It was an improvement for her after she had failed to lift 126kg in her first and second attempts but endeavoured to hold the 130kg lift so that Ejike had to settle for bronze.
It is the sixth Paralympics for the 44-year-old captain of Team Nigeria Paralympic contingent whose bronze is a continuation of her excellence at the highest levels. Since her debut at that Sydney 2000 millennium event, the serial medal winner never failed to return home with honours for every Games she featured in. She finished with gold in 2004, 2008 and 2016 while ending with a silver podium finish in 2000 and 2012 each.
However, it was not the same story for Innocent Nnamdi. While Ejike maintained her podium finish, Nnamdi, Nigeria’s entry in the -71kg class, was unable to enter a score in the 200 kg weight lift as the judges booked him in all three attempts meaning he finished behind Ghana’s Emmanuel Nii Tettey Oku, who was 7th in the final standings.
At the podium was reigning world and Paralympics’ champion, Malaysia’s Guskon Bonnie Bunyau. He retained his title with a final 228kg lift, while Egypt’s Atria Mohammed who lifted 191kg in his final attempt won silver. Britain’s Yule Micky who started with 180kg and finished with 182kg, took bronze.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
