Jubilation As Nigerian Female Athlete Wins Country’s First Gold Medal at Tokyo Paralympics

Jubilation As Nigerian Female Athlete Wins Country’s First Gold Medal at Tokyo Paralympics

Babajide Orevba
updated at April 12, 2023 at 7:48 PM
  • Latifat Tijani has won Team Nigeria’s first gold medal at the ongoing Paralympic Games in Tokyo
  • The impressive athlete pulled off an impressive performance to win the female 45kg event in powerlifting
  • Tijani won the event having lifted 107kg to claim goad ahead of China’s Zhe Cui who settled for silver, while Justyna Kozdryk of Poland won the bronze

Team Nigeria has won a gold medal at the ongoing Paralympic Games courtesy powerlifter Latifat Tijani who won the female 45kg event, Channels TV reports.

The impressive star made a top lift of 107kg to win the top prize of that category ahead of China’s Zhe Cui who settled for silver.

Justyna Kozdryk of Poland won the bronze medal at the event and this means Tijani has improved from her performance at the 2016 Supper Paralympic where she finished with 106kg.

Jubilation As Nigerian Female Athlete Wins Her Country’s First Gold Medal at Tokyo Paralympics
Latifat Tijani wins gold at Tokyo Paralympics. Photo: Christopher Jue
Source: Getty Images

Tijani won bronze in the women’s 45 kg event at the 2019 World Para Powerlifting Championships.

Premium Times reports that one of Nigeria’s para powerlifting medal hope at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Yakubu Adesokan earlier failed to reach the podium in the finals of his -49 class on Thursday morning.

How Nigeria won 4x400 at the World U20 Championships

Earlier, Team Nigeria made history after becoming the first country to win the mixed 4x400m event at the just concluded World U20 Championship in Nairobi, Kenya.

The quartet of Johnson Nnamani, Imaobong Nse Uko, Opeyemi Oke, and Bamidele Ajayi emerged champions after clocking a time of 3:19.70 in the final.

It was the first time the relay race would be making its debut at the world athletics event and the West African country won the race.

According to reports on the organisers' official website, this is also Nigeria’s first world U20 gold since 2008 when Folashade Abugan won the women’s 400m title in Bydgoszcz.

Kipyegon wins gold at Tokyo 2020

Legit.ng earlier reported that Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon earned the country her second gold of the Tokyo Olympics, thanks to an emphatic performance in the women’s 1500m finals.

Kipyegon was too powerful for pre-race favourite Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who finished third after a slight mishap in her steps in the final 200 metres.

Great Britain’s Laura Muir, who also ran an impressive race, won silver. The 1500m women’s final was one of the most anticipated races on Friday, August 6, especially because stakes were extremely high for Kipyegon.

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Babajide Orevba photo
Babajide Orevba
Babajide Orevba is a CAF accredited Nigerian journalist and HOD of the Local Desk with over 10 years of experience in media landscape.He studied NCE Political Science/Social Studies, AOCOED.
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