Team Nigeria added three more medals to its haul on Day 5 of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as Athletics began and weightlifting also continued.
The day began with the Athletics qualification heats as Team Nigeria’s Favour Ashe secured a spot in the semi-finals with a time of 10.12s in Heat 1 Men’s 100m.
Alongside Ashe, Team Nigeria’s Raymond Ekevwo also won Heat 4 in 10.14s and that was enough to make the semi-final line up.
Defending Champion, South Africa’s Akani Simbine also qualified for the semi-finals winning Heat 2 of the Men’s 100m with a time of 10.10s
Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala won Heat 5 of the Men’s 100m to book his semis place in 10.07s while Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme’s 10.08 PB (Personal Best) was enough to guarantee him a semi-final berth.
In the Athletics Women’s corner, Team Nigeria recorded multiple successes from Track to Field events.
Grace Nwokocha ran a sub-11(10.99s) to book her place in the 100m’s semi-finals while Rosemary Chukwuma won Heat 4 in 11.02 seconds (-0.2) to make the semis
Joy-Udo Gabriel finished third in Heat 5 in 11.43s also making it to the semi-finals
Athletics took a break on the day and attention shifted to Weightlifting where Team Nigeria’s 19year-old Weightlifter Taiwo Liadi secured a silver medal in the Women’s 76kg category after lifting 96kg in the snatch and 120kg in the Clean&Jerk to set a combined Junior Commonwealth record total of 216kg.
This medal took Team Nigeria’s haul to six – 2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze
Then came Boxing heartbreak where Team Nigeria’s Abdul-Afeez Osoba could not get past Team Wales’ Garan Croft in the Light Middleweight category. Croft recorded 5-0 points win over Osoba to advance to the quarterfinals.
Quick relief the Women’s boxing category as Team Nigeria’s Esther Osoba made the quarterfinals of the Women’s Featherweight boxing event at the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games after a win over Team New Zealand’s Erin Walsh.
After boxing came another heartbreak as the Team Nigeria’s Table Tennis men fell to Team England to finish without a podium place
The duo of Abiodun Bode and Olajide Omotayo lost the first match in three straight games to Team England’s Tom Jarvis and Paul Drinkhall in the Doubles category.
The first singles also saw Aruna Quadri lose to Team England’s Liam Pitchford 3-1 in four games.
The second single’s win of Team England’s Paul Drinkhall over Team Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo sealed the bronze medal win for the Englishmen
A breakdown of the event:
Doubles:
Abiodun Bode/Olajide Omotayo 0 – 3 Tom Jarvis/Paul Drinkhall (11-6, 11-7, 11-1)
Singles 1:
Aruna Quadri 3 – 1 Liam Pitchford (11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 11-6)
Singles 2:
Olajide Omotayo 3-1 Paul Drinkhall (11-4,11-2,11-4)
Athletics returned with Shot –put as Team Nigeria’s Anabel Orobosa made the finals of the Women’s Shot-put event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after throwing a mark of 16.27m to finish fifth in Group B.
Team Nigeria’s Hurdler and National record holder, Ezekiel Nathaniel also booked a place in the men’s 400m hurdles after finishing second in qualification heat 1 with a time of 50.38s
Weightlifting once again added to the medal haul as Team Nigeria’s Mary Taiwo Osijo secured bronze medal in the Women’s 87kg category of the Weightlifting event at the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Osijo lofted a combined total of 236kg with 102kg in Snatch and 134kg in Clean&Jerk to attain this feat.
Gold in this event category went to Team Australia’s Eileen Cikamantana while the silver medal was won by Team Canada’s Kristen Ngarlem.
Action on the day was rounded up with Team Nigeria making national history in the Women’s Discus event category of the 2022 Commonwealth Games after Chioma Onyekwere threw a distance of 61.70m to win Gold in this category.
Onyekwere becomes the first woman ever to win a Commonwealth Gold medal in Discus event for the country and the second Nigerian ever to win a Commonwealth Gold medal in Discuss after Adewale Olukoju won the Men’s Discus Gold at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.
It was a double podium for Team Nigeria as Obiageri Amechi also threw a distance of 56.99m to win bronze medal in the Women’s Discus event at the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games
Day 5 was a resounding success for Team Nigeria as it added four medals to the haul – 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze bring the total haul to 8th on the overall table and second African country behind South Africa with 16 medals haul so far.
Team Australia retains its spot at the top of the medals table.
2022 Commonwealth games Action continues Day 6 as Team Nigeria jostles for medals in Athletics, Boxing, Table Tennis and Judo.
