Nigeria wins 7th gold in Paralympics

Flora Ugwunwa set a new world record in the women’s javelin – F54 event on Tuesday at the Rio Paralympics to give Nigeria its seventh gold medal.

She recorded a throw of 20.25 metres after six attempts to win the gold medal and take Nigeria’s tally to seven gold, two silver and one bronze medals.

On a day when Nigeria’s medals search was looking to be futile after some failure in the favourite hunting ground of power-lifting, the athletics event provided succour.

Ugwunwa beat a field of nine to set new Paralympic and world records, while Tunisia’s Hania Aidi won the silver medal with a throw of 18.88m.

South Africa’s Ntombizanele Situ completed the African sweep of the event’s medals by winning the bronze medal with a heave of 17.90m.

Earlier in the day, Nigeria had been so close but still far from winning any medal on the day after some unsuccessful outings.

In power-lifting men’s -88kg, Opeyemi Jegede could only place fifth, while Abdulazeez Ibrahim placed sixth in power-lifting men’s -97 kg

The Games will come to an end on Sunday.

(NAN)