Nigeria’s Folashade Oluwafemiayo on Sunday broke her own world record in the women’s over 86kg Para-Powerlifting at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, France to bring the overall medals Team Nigeria won at the Paralympics to seven (7).
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Nigerian contingent at the Paralympics was no doubt motivated after the federal government (FG) announced an upward review of the winning bonuses for the Paralympic athletes.
Recall that during the just concluded Olympic Games, where the athletes won no medals, the FG announced bonuses of 5,000 USD, 3, 000 USD and 2,000 USD for winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively. However, the government renewed the bonus template for the Paralympics to 15,000 USD, 10,000 USD and 5,000 USD for Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winners respectively.
Eniola Bolaji was the first to win the first medal for Nigeria in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. She defeated Kozyna Oksana of Ukraine 2-0 (21-9 and 21-9) to win the bronze medal in para badminton in the Women Singles SL3 category.
Esther Nworgu went on to win the second medal for Nigeria in the Para-powerlifting event. Nworgu was narrowly beaten in the women 41kg category by China’s Zhe Cui, who lifted 119kg to set a new Paralympic Games record, taking the gold. Nworgu lifted an impressive 118kg to secure the silver medal.
It was Onyinyechi Mark, who on Friday, won the first gold medal for Nigeria at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. Mark, broke her record twice during the event, set a new world record in the Women 61kg para-powerlifting category by lifting 150 kg to win gold for Nigeria. She had earlier lifted 145kg, 146kg, 147kg, before she finally lifted 150kg to set the new Paralympic Games and world record which won gold for Nigeria.
Team Nigeria on Saturday added a silver medal to the medal haul after Flora Ugwunwa won in the women’s javelin throw event. Ugwunwa, who competed in the women’s F54 category of the athletics event, achieved a throw of 19.26 metres to finish second in the competition. Ugwunwa’s win made it one gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
Powerlifter Bose Omolayo also on Saturday added to Team Nigeria’s medals haul by winning the silver medal in the women’s 79kg event of the Paralympic Games in Paris. Omolayo lifted 145kg to place second behind China’s Han Miaoyu who lifted 154kg to win the gold medal and set a new world record. Omolayo’s victory took Nigeria’s total medals to six, made up of one gold three silver and two bronze medals.
On the final day of the 2024 Paralympic Games, Team Nigeria’s captain at the Paralympics, Folashade Oluwafemiayo drew the curtains on Nigeria’s participation at the Games, winning a spectacular gold medal to crown what has been a successful outing for Nigeria at the Paralympics. Oluwafemiayo broke her World Record in the women’s over 86kg Para-Powerlifting, becoming the first Para-athlete in history to lift 166kg. It is an improvement from her existing WR of 165kg, and also added a gold medal to Nigeria’s medals haul.
TNG reports Team Nigeria with the 7 medals haul finished 40th overall on the 2024 Paralympics medal table; 4th in Africa behind Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Since 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, Nigerian Paralympians have won medals at all the nine editions they have been to. Team Nigeria won ten medals at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Team Nigeria 35-member contingent at the 2024 Paralympic Games consists of 23 athletes, seven coaches and five medical personnel.