Nigeria won 11 medals (6 gold and 5 silver) at the 2024 African Senior Weightlifting Championship in Egypt, www.aclsports.com reports.
2022 Commonwealth Games champion, Rafiatu Lawal claimed three gold medals in the women’s 59kg, Joy Ogbonne won three gold medals in the women’s 71kg, Adijat Olarinoye bagged three silver medals in the women’s 59kg while Umoafia Edidiong picked up two silver medals in the men’s 73kg.
The President of Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, Ibrahim Abdul praised the gallant efforts of the four Weightlifters who all won medals for Nigeria and have boosted their chances of picking Olympics tickets.
He said the weightlifters would return back home to commence preparation for the African Games almost immediately as Nigeria chase record outing at the championship in Ghana.
“We know the lifters are capable of doing more and we expect them to go full throttle at the African Games with the rest of their colleagues. We expect them to give the signal at the African Games before going to Thailand to complete the job.
“We shall proceed to camp almost immediately as they return from Egypt because the African Games is around the corner and we want to ensure we perform better than we have done in previous editions.”
Nigeria’s contingent made up of four Weightlifters and four officials which has three coaches: Janet Ali, Abdulsalam Kayode and Onubaye Sefiat and a referee: Lawrence Iquaibom will arrive Nigeria on Thursday.
The Nigeria’s Weightlifters will participate in another Olympic Games Qualifier next month when the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Cup holds from 31st March to 11th April in Phuket, Thailand.
After the last qualifier, the list of athletes that qualified for the 2024 Paris Games would be made public through the IWF World Rankings.
