August 26, (THEWILL) – Team Nigeria has begun its medal honours in the ongoing Paralympics Games 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, as Latifat Tijani made the country’s first gold medal podium finish on Thursday.
The 39-year-old athlete took the gold in the women’s 45kg powerlifting by defeating China’s Zhe Cui to lift 107kg and finish ahead of the competition. She adds this gold to the one she won at the Brazzaville Africa Games in 2015.
Tijani, who also finished the Paralympics at Rio de Janeiro with a silver medal in 2016, is also competing for another straight gold medal on Thursday in the women’s 45kg event.
The gold medal finish for Tijani is the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition for the athlete after a dedicated and resilient focus on achieving her dreams of Olympic glory. In a 2018 interview, when asked what her ambitions were for the future, she had declared: “To win gold at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.”
It was not the same for her fellow powerlifting compatriot, Team Nigeria’s Yakubu Adesokan. The Paralympian missed a podium finish in men’s 49kg Powerlifting, finishing in fourth place with his best lift of 155kg.
In his final attempt to displace Azerbaijan’s Parvin Mammadov, who had lifted 156kg, from the bronze medal spot, it was beyond Adesokan to lift and he fell out of contention for medals. He could not add to the gold medals he had won in 2012 at the London Paralympics and at the World Para Powerlifting Championships two years after.
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.
