The opening day of track and field events of the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom, saw Nigeria winning two medals with Chioma Onyekwere winning gold in the Women Discus event while National Champions, Obiageri Amaechi, going home with the bronze medal to increase Nigeria’s medal haul.
Onyekwere threw a distance of 61.70m, a new Season Best for the US-based athlete for the gold medal while Amaechi’s throw of 56.99m was good enough for the bronze medal. England’sJade Lally won the silver with a distance of 58.42m.
There was another medal for Team Nigeria as Taiwo Liadi won the country’s first silver albeit in weightlifting events that has recorded all the medals won by Nigeria before the performance of the track and field team.
The 19-year-old won the medal in the women’s 76kg weightlifting event while also achieving a new World Junior Record in the event.
Liadi finished in second position behind Canada’s Maya Laylor, who set a new Commonwealth Games record with a lift of 128kg altogether.
To win the silver, Liadi lifted a total of 216kg, 96kg in snatch and 120kg in the Clean and Jerk.
It would be recalled that Adijat Olarinoye and Rafiat Lawal had claimed the two gold medals in the women’s 55kg and 59kg categories respectively and set new Commonwealth Games records.
Also on Tuesday, Mary Osijo won another bronze medal for Team Nigeria in weightlifting after lifting a total of 225kg in the Women’s 87kg event.
With the latest results, Nigeria now occupied the 10th position on the medal table with eight medals, three gold, one silver and four bronze medals.
Meanwhile, it was a bad outing for the country’s table tennis players after failing to win a medal in the Team event.
The Aruna Quadri-led team lost their third place game against England 3-0, same result the team recorded in the semifinal against India.
Also in Judo, the hope of the country to snatch a bronze ended in futility as Joy Asonye lost her contest for bronze medal in the Women -70kg 10-0 against England’s Kelly Petersen-Pollard.
In Boxing, Abdul-Afeez Osoba failed to progress beyond the Round of 16 of the Men’s Over 67kg-71kg (Light Middle) after losing to Garan Croft of Wales, 5-0.
