Islamiyat Adebukola Yusuf became the star of Team Nigeria’s Day 4 at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as she he added a bronze medal to the team’s haul at the Games.
Day 4 for Team Nigeria began with Judo disappointment as Patrick Edwin lost his Men’s 66kg Elimination Round of 16 tie by Ippon to Northern Ireland’s Nathon Burns.
An inconsolable Patrick was outclassed by his much stronger and faster opponent Burns as the latter went on to win bronze medal in the category while Cyprus’s Georgios Balarjishvili picked Gold and silver went to Australia’s Nathan Katz
After Judo came Weightlifting as Team Nigeria’s 19-year-old weightlifter, Islamiyat Adebukola Yusuf started well in her Women’s 64kg event after a Snatch with a lift of 93kg and 113kg attempt in Clean and Jerk
The 2022 International Weightlifting Open Championship gold medalist finished third at the end after lifting a combined total of 212kg from both Snatch and Clean&Jerk.
Gold medal in the Women’s 64kg weightlifting event went to Team Canada’s Maude G Charron while Team Australia’s Sarah Maureen Cochrane took silver.
This medal took Nigeria’s tally in the Weightlifting category of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to 4 medals in six categories – 2 Gold and 2 Bronze.
Another weightlifting category event then saw Team Nigeria’s Joy Eze miss all three attempts of 125kg in the Clean&Jerk as she missed out on a podium finish in the Women’s 71kg category.
Gold in this category went to Team England’s Sarah Davies, Team Canada’s Alexis Ashworth took silver, and the bronze medal went to Team India’s Harjinder Kaur.
In boxing, A 5-0 points win saw Team England’s Aaron Bowen end the medal hopes of Team NIgeria’s Innocent Ehwarieme in the Light Heavyweight category.
Team Nigeria’s Men’s Table Tennis event was the last event of the day which they lost in straight sets to Team India
Team India’s duo of Desai Harmeet and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran overpowered Team Nigeria’s Abiodun Bode and Olajide Omotayo to record a first match win
Then came the Singles first match which Team Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri lost to Team India’s Sharath Kamal.
The fate of Team Nigeria was then sealed with a third loss to Team India as Olajide Omotayo lost to Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in the second singles set
A breakdown of the event:
Doubles:
Abiodun Bode/Olajide Omotayo 0 – 3 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran/Desai Harmeet (11-6, 11-7, 11-1)
Singles 1:
Aruna Quadri 3 – 1 Achanta Sharath Kamal (11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 15-13)
Singles 2:
Olajide Omotayo 3-1 Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (11-9,4-11,11-6,11-8)
Team Nigeria will now face Team England in the bronze medal match on Day 5 of the Games.
The bronze medal on Day 4 increases Team Nigeria’s total number of medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games to 4 at the end of Day 4.
Team Australia retains its spot at the top of the medals table.
Day 5 will see Team Nigeria compete in Judo, Table Tennis, Athletics and Weightlifting
