September 04, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s contingent to the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan picked up another pair of medals including one gold medal on Saturday to end its participation in the competition on a winning note with 10 medals in total, four of which were gold, one silver and five bronze.
The fifth bronze belonged to Nigeria’s gold medalist in the women’s F40 shot put event from Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Lauritta Onye. Unfortunately, she could not defend her Paralympic record gold and finished in third place behind Nourhein Belhaj Salem of Tunisia and Poland’s Renata Sliwinska, who took the gold.
The wet and slippery conditions of the stadium grounds made a difficult competitive situation even more so but Onye performed against all odds. She heaved the shot put ball to a season-best 8.29 metre distance. It was not enough to earn her the top medal but she finished on the podium with her bronze.
Ahead of her, the Polish athlete Renata shaved off a fraction of distance from the Paralympics record 8.40m that Onye set at Rio five years ago. Renta’s throw of 8.75m saw her set a new Paralympics record. Salem threw her shot put over an 8.33m distance Salem that secured the silver medal finish for Tunisia.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s fourth gold medal came through Flora Ugunnwa in the F54 javelin event on Saturday. It was the country’s final event of the Games and ensured that there was a final flourish to the country’s involvement at the competition.
Ugunnwa covered a season-best distance of 19.39 metres with her winning throw to leave the rest of the field jostling for the silver and bronze medal places. The Uzbekistani Kurbanova Nurkorn came second with her previously leading throw of 18.38m while China’s Yang Liwan’s throw of 17.83 won the bronze medal.
The 10 medal tally that Nigeria finished with left the country in the 32nd position on the medals table. As THEWILL reported previously, there are still two African countries above Nigeria still, Tunisia and Algeria, in 27th and 28th positions respectively.
Coincidentally, all three African countries have picked up four gold medals each; but they are ahead of Nigeria, having won more silver and bronze medals in all.
After the closing ceremony on Sunday, the remaining batch of Paralympians will return home. THEWILL reported how the first batch to return were ceremoniously welcomed by the Sports Ministry with a brief reception and encomiums at their arrival at the airport.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
