Nigeria wins first gold at Tokyo Paralympics

Latifat Tijani has won Nigeria’s first gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics after out lifting her opponents in the weightlifting finals.

The Ogun state native prevailed in the 45kg category on Thursday after she lifted 107kg to overcome the challenge from Zhe Cui, China weightlifter, who won silver after lifting 102kg.

Justyna Kozdryk of Poland earned bronze with a further kilogram behind her Chinese rival after a pulsating exchange of weights.

The 39-year-old Tijani had previously won silver at the Rio 2016 event.

Yakubu Adesokan, her compatriot, however, failed to make the podium in the men’s 49kg weight category.

Adesokan finished fourth and narrowly missed the medal after lifting 155kg, which failed to match Parvin Mammadov of Azerbaijan’s 156kg lift.

A final attempt of 161kg was unsuccessful as Adesokan failed to lift it.

Nigeria wins first table tennis match at the ninth attempt

Tajudeen Agunbiade has won Nigeria’s first table tennis match at the ongoing Paralympics games, defeating Yi Qing Zhao of China.

Agunbiade’s first win at the third attempt saw him advance into the quarter-finals stage in an encounter that was played at the Tokyo metropolitan gymnasium.

In the class 9 match that lasted 28 minutes, Agunbiade took a two-game lead he surrendered in 11 minutes, before taking the last game 11-6 to win the pulsating encounter.

Agunbiade, who won gold at Sydney 2000 Paralympics, will face Devos Laurens in the quarter-final set for Friday.