August 24, (THEWILL) – After a stunning Olympics in Tokyo, the Paralympics Games have arrived to continue a fine summer of sports, excitement, challenges and glory. The Games, which are scheduled to run from August 24 to September 5, will see proceedings kick off with the opening ceremony at midday.
There are billed to be 539 events across 21 venues in 22 sports for the Paralympics and of these, 22 Nigerian athletes will represent Team Nigeria in four events: Powerlifting, Athletics, Table Tennis and Rowing, with the desire to better the performance of their compatriots in the July 23 to August 8 Games.
The Nigerian Paralympics team have precedent to count on as the contingent to the previous Games in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, had the most successful outing for Team Nigeria. They finished the competition as Africa’s best team with eight gold, two silver and two bronze medals to end up in 17th place in the medal standings.
While Nigeria debuted at the Olympics the 1952 Summer Games held in Helsinki, Finland, the country’s first Paralympics appearance was at the Paralympics of Barcelona 1992. The contingent to Barcelona, of six male athletes, competed in track and field events and returned home with three gold medals for a successful outing.
To date, the millennium games in Sweden in the year 2000 constituted the largest contingent Nigeria has sent to the Games. A 31-strong Paralympics’ Athlete team represented Nigeria courageously and had 13 medals overall to show for their displays.
The current Team Nigeria captain, Lucy Ejike (44) is going to be featured in what is her sixth Paralympics. The 44-year-old debuted at that Sydney 2000 millennium event and is determined now more than ever to see her team surpass even the bar set in 2016 in the Rio Games.
The consistency of the captain Paralympian is itself a lesson in inspirational determination. Ejike is a serial medal winner, returning home with honours for every edition she had featured in.
She finished with gold in 2004, 2008 and 2016 while ending with a silver podium finish in 2000 and 2012 each.
Of the 22 Paralympics’ athletes in the team for the year’s Games, Flora Ugwunwa, Iyiazi Njideka, Lauritta Onye, Nwaozu Chituru and Galadima Suwaibidu will represent Nigeria in athletics, while Ijeoma Kingsley will be challenging for honours in the Rowing event.
In powerlifting, where Nigeria had excelled the most in Paralympics, Tijani Latifat, 44-year-old Lucy, Ibrahim Mujinat, Omolayo Bose Obiji Lovelyn and Oluwafemiayo Folashade will seek to continue that dominance. Others joining them include Okpala Pauline, Ibrahim Dauda, Yakubu Adesokan and Innocent Nnamdi.
 Another arena of medal hopefuls is in the Table Tennis Events where Nigeria’s medal race will be served by Faith Obazuaye Tajudeen Agunbiade, Olufemi Alabi Olabiyi, Ahmed Koleosho, Ogunkunle Isau and Farinoye Victor.
These athletes for the tennis events at the Games will be the first to feature as the first rounds are scheduled to commence on Wednesday beginning with Koleosho and Agunbiade.
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.
