Nigeria wins first gold at Tokyo Paralympics as Latifat Tijani defeats China’s Zhe Cui in powerlifting

Nigeria has won her first gold medal at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, thanks to powerlifter, Latifat Tijani.

Latifat came top place in the women’s 45kg powerlifting on Thursday, August 26, after defeating China’s Zhe Cui to lift 107kg.

She was a gold medalist at the Brazzaville 2015 Africa Games and silver medalist at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

In other news, Nigeria won its first medal at the recently concluded Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after Ese Brume won a bronze medal in the women’s long jump event in the early hours of Tuesday, August 3.

Brume jumped 6.97 metres with her very first jump to claim bronze just behind America’s Brittney Reese’s 6.97m, who came second, and Germany’s Maliaka Mihambo’s 7.00m, who came first.

This is Nigeria’s first track and field medal at the Olympic Games since 2008 when Okagbare won a silver medal in Beijing.

Brume, who is the African record holder in the women’s Long Jump event, leapt to a distance of 6.76m, 1cm more than the required mark to seal her place in the final on Sunday.

She finished with the fourth overall best jump among the finalists before going into the finals on Tuesday to win Nigeria’s first medal.