Nigerian power-lifter, Josephine Orji, last night shattered the world record of the women’s -+86kg power-lifting event at the ongoing 2016 Paralympics Games in Rio, Brazil with a lift of 154kg to win the gold medal.
The gold medal is Nigeria’s eighth at the 2016 Paralympics. Team Nigeria is comfortably seated in the 10th position on the overall medals table with eight gold, two silver and one bronze.
Poland’s Marzena Zieba, who finished with 134kg, settled for the silver while Holland’s Melaica Tuinfort got the consolatory bronze with her best lift of 130kg in the +86kg category.
Orji’s performance yesterday capped the brilliant performance of Team Nigeria’s special athletes at the Games. The swashbuckling fair complexioned Nigerian lady who was sure of her capacity opted to enter the battle with the other competitors on a frightening scale.
She entered the contest with 151kg lift, a weight that was far beyond the capacity of any other competitor in her category.
The only other lifter who came close to her effrontery, Egypt’s Nadya Ali, failed in all her three attempts to lift 145kg.
With the gold already in the kitty, Orji now set her mind at taking the world record. Twice she failed to lift the 154kg but buoyed on by her vociferous teammates and Technical Adviser, Areh Feyisetan, Orji dug deep into her inner strength in the third attempt to surmount the obstacle and pocketed the world record.
Team Nigeria’s eight gold, two silver and one bronze haul is better than the Sydney 2000 Paralympics all-time haul of seven gold, one silver and five bronze medals.
Congratulations…