Latifat Tijani wins Nigeria’s First Gold Medal at Tokyo Paralympics
Latifat Tijani has won Nigeria’s first gold medal at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympic Games. She becomes the first athlete to pick Nigeria’s medal in Tokyo2020, after putting up an impressive performance in the women’s 45kg powerlifting on Thursday, August 26th.
Latifat Tijani defeated China’s Zhe Cui to lift 107kg.
After her first lift of 105kg was disallowed, the Ogun state born athlete returned with enthusiasm to make history with the second attempt of 105kg and the third attempt of 107kg. Latifat Tijani won in style with 117kg in her fourth attempt, approaching a world record of 118kg to lift the first medal for Team Nigeria in Tokyo.
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Latifat is not new to winning. She previously won a gold medal at the Brazzaville 2015 Africa Games and a silver medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.
Meanwhile, Team Nigeria’s Yakubu Adesokan finished fourth with his best lift of 155kg.
Yakubu Adesokan attempted 161kg on his last attempt to clinch a Bronze from Azerbaijan’s Parvin Mammadov who lifted 156kg but failed to lift it.
At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Yakubu won a gold medal in the men’s 48 kg powerlifting event, lifting 180 kg. He was also a gold medalist at the 2014 World Para Powerlifting Championship games.
Congratulations are in order.