Rio 2016: Nigeria wins third gold medal

Team Nigeria’s Captain at the ongoing Rio 2016 Paralympics Games, Lucy Ejike, has added another gold medal to the country’s medal haul.

Ejike did not only win a gold medal but did so in an astonishing manner, shattering the Paralympic and World Record three successive times to dominate the women’s -61kg event in Powerlifting.

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.

Ejike’s medal is Nigeria’s fifth at the ongoing Games, and third Gold medal behind Roland Ezuruike and Paul Kehinde who also dominated their respective categories in the Powerlifting event.

Latifat Tijani and Esther Onyema won Silver medals.

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.