*Team Nigeria adds gold, silver and bronze to climb to 10th spot
By Duro Ikhazuagbe
Chioma Onyekwere capped opening day of the track & field events of the 22nd Commonwealth Games in Birmingham for Team Nigeria by winning the gold medal of the women’s Discus with a 61.70m throw.
It is the first discus throw gold medal to be won by any Nigerian lady in the history of the Commonwealth Games. Adewale Olukoju is the only male to have ever won the gold at Auckland 1990 Games.
Her compatriot, Obiageri Amaechi won the bronze with 56.99m.
Onyekwere who is the reigning African champion in the event got on the podium to lead the field with her very last fourth throw that went over 60m distance to take the gold. Her previous 55.82 and 56.42 were no where near the podium and fouled her third throw. England’s Jade Lally took the silver.
Onyekwere was filled with joy, running into the arms of Team Nigeria officials like Gabriel Opuana and Maria Wophil who joined her to celebrate the first gold medal of the opening day of the track & field events of Birmingham 2022.
What would have been Team Nigeria’s third medal of the track ended in disappointment as Suwaibidu Galadima got disqualified for beating the gun in the final of the men’s T45-47 100m event.
Ironically, England’s Emmanuel Temitayo Oyinbo-Coker with Nigerian ancestry won the Para-athletics event. Another athlete with Nigerian blood in his vein, Ola Abidogun won the Bronze medal also for England. Jaydon Page of Australia won the silver.
Earlier in the day, Laidi Taiwo, won Nigeria’s fifth medal, a silver in the Women’s 76Kg weightlifting event. She lifted a total of 216kg in the Snatch, Clean & Jerk category.
Also yesterday, Mary Taiwo Osijo won a bronze in the women’s 87kg of the weightlifting event with a total lift of 225kg.
The 25-year-old weightlifter was beaten to the gold and silver by Australian Eileen Cikamatana and Kristel Ngarlem of Canada respectively.
Meanwhile, double Olympic sprint champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah’s presence in the 2022 Commonwealth Games women’s 100m race has made the battle for the gold medal one-way traffic as the Nigerian trio of Grace Nwokocha, Rosemary Chukwuma and Joy Udo-Gabriel qualified for the semifinal of the blue ribband event.
Nwokocha ran her second sub 11 seconds in the 100m (10.99s) to win her heat and qualify for this evening’s semifinal.
The 21-year-old’s time is the joint fastest in the field in the first round heats with that of the Jamaican, Thompson-Herah with both winning their respective heats.
Chukwuma also won her heat after effortlessly running 11.02 seconds while Udo-Gabriel ran a new personal season’s best time of 11.43 seconds to come third in heat five to also book her place in the semis.
Any of the Nigerian trio will be dreaming of upstaging Thompson-Herah to become the third Nigerian after Mary Onyali (1994) and Blessing Okagbare (2014) to be crowned the Commonwealth Games fastest woman.
MEDAL STANDINGS
G. S. B
Australia 42. 32. 32
England. 31. 34. 21
N’Zealand. 13. 7. 6
Canada. 11. 16. 19
S’Africa. 6. 5. 5
India. 5. 5. 3
Scotland. 3. 8. 15
Wales. 3. 2. 8
Malaysia. 3. 2. 3
Nigeria. 3. 1. 4
