TEAM Nigeria yesterday shot into the lead as the best African country at the on-going Paralympic Games in Rio with three of her athletes winning three more gold medals in the powerlifting and shot put events to bring her total to seven.
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Paralympic cyclist Jon-Allan Butterworth has said he hopes to inspire people to “follow their dreams” after becoming the first British serviceman or woman injured in Iraq or Afghanistan to win Paralympic gold.
It was Onye fourth throw of 8.40 metre that set a new world record for her ahead of Tunisia’s Rima Abdelli (7.37m) and Netherlands’ Lara Baars (7.12m) that both claimed silver and bronze medals respectively. He was also a silver medalist in the singles class 5 in London.
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.
“I know what I can do, I know I can go out there and perform”.
Jayne Kavanagh, performance pathway manager at Help for Heroes, said: “To come back from London 2012 with a performance like that was incredible and just shows what hard work and dedication can achieve”.
“To think that three years ago I did no sport, but after watching 2012 I’m now here, I’ve actually competed and got a medal”.
“She is the champion and I didn’t how I would beat her”, said Nwosu.
The successes took ParalympicsGB’s tally to 21 golds. New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe won gold.
When one can respect and gratitude being woman, she won!
“I have trained four years away from home, and I have promised my father I would win a medal”, she said.
He erased the previous world record of 16.29m set by Todd Hodgetts of Australia at the London Paralympics in 2012.
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They were two of seven medals for Britain’s swimmers as Rebecca Redfearn (SB13 100m breaststroke), and Tom Hamer (men’s S14 200m freestyle) also claimed silver and Josef Craig (men’s S8 100m freestyle), Stephanie Millward (women’s S8 100m freestyle) and Amy Maren (SM9 200m individual medley) claimed bronze.
