Nigeria has won yet another gold medal at the ongoing 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, Brazil, through Lauritta Onye in the shot put f40.
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Ejike first broke the Paralympic record by lifting 136kg before subsequently adding lifts of 138kg and 142kg to seal the world record and hand Nigeria with their third gold medal of the Games.
But perhaps more significantly, the achievements of Nigeria’s Paralympians have cast those of their able-bodied counterparts into the shadows.
The first bronze medal for Nigeria was won by Nnamdi Innocent in the men’s -72kg of Powerlifting.
Earlier in the day, Ndidi Nwosu equalled the Paralympics Games record of 140kg in winning the women’s -73kg event.
With nine medals already in the bag, Paralympics NZ’s goal of achieving 18 medals by the end of competition looks promising.
Much of the country’s success has been down to their dominance on the powerlifting benches.
On Sunday, Lucy Ejike set a new world record when winning the gold medal of the women’s -61kg.
The Silver medals came through Oyema Esther in Women’s -55 kg and Tijani Latifat in Women’s -45 kg all in Powerlifting.
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Nigeria is also competing in para-athletics, which has yielded one gold medal so far, and para table tennis. Lauritta won gold with a world record throw of 8.40 meters, more than a meter further than silver medalist Rima Abdelli of Tunisia.
