The early camping of Team Nigeria’s weightlifters look to be paying much dividend at the Commonwealth Games as the pair of Oluwatoyin Adesanmi and Obioma Okoli claimed the women’s 63kg Group A gold and silver medals respectively after lifting a joint total weight of 207kg on Sunday.
Prior to Day four of the 20th edition of the Games, the country had already claimed gold, two silver medals and one bronze all in weightlifting.
But with the race to equal the National Sports Commission’s 14 gold medal ambition ahead of the team, 22-year-old, Adesanmi, and her training partner Okoli took the competition in their own strides, leaving India’s Poonam Yadav in third place.
Okoli, 22, who began her weightlifting career in Akure and has named former Nigeria weightlifter Sunday Mathias as her hero, mounted pressure on her partner but was disappointed by a no-lift decision at 123kg in the end of the clean and jerk.
She was, moreover, contended with the silver awarded her by the officials owing to her inferior performance in the snatch phase of the final, where she lifted just 90kg as against Adesanmi’s 92.
As at time of report, Team Nigeria are ranked ninth in the medal standings, with two gold medals, three silver medals, and bronze.
