•Nigeria leads Africa with 6 gold
Team Nigeria on Monday increased its medal haul with three more gold medals at the ongoing Paralympic Games in Rio, Brazil, through Ndidi Nwosu, Lauritta Onye and Bose Omolayo.
Nwosu won Nigeria’s fourth gold in the women’s -73kg powerlifting as she lifted 140 kg and won through her body weight as Souhad Ghazouani of France also lifted 140kg.
Egyptian Amany Ali claimed the bronze with a lift of 127 kg.
Onye, a former popular Nollywood actress known as ‘Laury White’, accounted for Nigeria’s second gold medal on Monday, the fifth in total.
The Imo State-born fair-skinned athlete clinched the gold in the women’s shot put F40 event with a final throw of 8.40m and also set the new world record.
The 2011 All Africa Games silver medallist broke the world record with her first throw of 7.83m to erase the old record, 7.72m she set at the 2015 IPC World Athletics Championships in Doha.
The Nigerian Amazon’s second throw hit the 7.54m mark, while her third attempt went one centimeter further. She eventually clinched gold with 8.40m on her fourth attempt.
Fellow African, Abdelli Rima of Tunisia finished second behind Onye with a final throw of 7.37metres, while Baars Lara of the Netherlands settled for the bronze medal with a throw of 7.12metres.
The gold won by Onye is Nigeria’s first gold in athletics at the ongoing Rio Paralympics.
Bose Omolayo also on Monday clinched Nigeria’s sixth gold medal at the Games as she lifted 138kg in the women’s -79Kg powerlifting event to set a new world record.
China’s Lili Hu won the silver with a lift of 135kg while Taipei’s Tzu-Hui Lin claimed the bronze with a lift of 131kg.
Nigeria’s three gold medallists before Monday’s events are Roland Ezuruike, Paul Kehinde and Lucy Ejike.
Meanwhile, as of the time of this report, Nigeria was ninth on the medal’s table with six gold, two silver and one bronze to emerge Africa’s best.
Tunisia was next with four gold, four silver and two bronze medals to place 11th on the table, while South Africa followed with three gold, two silver and two bronze medals to occupy the 16th position on the table.
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