Team Nigeria consolidated second place on the medals table at the 12th African Games as the country’s athletes bagged 23 medals (6 Gold, 5 Silver, 12 Bronze) on Friday, the penultimate day of the tournament.
Nigeria’s male wrestlers took on the gauntlet set by their female counterparts on Thursday as all five wrestlers earned podium places.
Multiple African champions Amas Daniel (65kg) and Emmanuel Ogbonna (74kg) won gold, while Soso Taramau (97kg), Ebikwenimo Welson (57kg) and veteran Sinivie Boltic (125kg) settled for silver medals.
In Men’s weightlifting, Tijani Abdul bagged a hat-trick of bronze medals in the +109kg (323kg), Clean-Jerk (180kg) and 143kg). Egypt’s Abdelrahman Elsayed and Algeria’s Rabeh Chouya took gold and silver respectively in all three categories.
There were also three bronze medals for Olawale Barde in the men’s 102kg (343kg), Clean-Jerk (185), and Snatch (158) and Obehi Joseph in the women’s +87kg (235kg), Clean-Jerk (130kg) and Snatch (105kg).
Fresh from bagging two gold medals on Thursday, Ayomide Bello returned to the waters on Friday and grabbed another two gold medals in Canoeing winning the Women’s C1 200m in 50.517secs before teaming up with Goodness Foloki to take gold in the Women’s C2 200m in 48.783secs.
In athletics, Divine Oduduru settled for silver in the men’s 200m as his time of 20.54secs was bested by Zambia’s Sydney Siame who coasted to gold in 20.35secs. Anaso Jobodwana of South Africa was third in 20.56secs.
The quartet of Adeyemi Sikiru Adewale, Akpeki Shedrack, Eraiyokan Orukpe and Ibadin Edose crossed the line in 3:03:18secs to finish in third place in the men’s 4x400m behind Botswana (3:02:55secs) and South Africa (3:03:18) who bagged gold and silver respectively.
In the women’s category, Nigeria’s 4x400m team of Patience Okon-Geroge, Blessing Oladoye, Kemi Francis and Favour Ofili successfully defended the country’s title, crossing the line in a time of 3:30:32secs ahead of Botswana (3:31:96secs) and Uganda (3:32:25secs).
There was a further bronze medal for Nigeria on the tracks as Abasiono Akpan finished in third place in the women’s 400m Hurdles in a time of 57.66secs.
Having won bronze in the Hammer Throw earlier in the tournament, Adetola Olatoye went a couple of notches higher by clinching gold in the women’s Shot Put with an unsurmountable throw of 16.61m.
Nigeria also claimed bronze in the men’s Javelin Throw after Nnamdi Chinecherem threw a distance of 73.24m to finish the Kenyan pair of Kiplangat Yego (87.73m) and Alexander Kiprotich (77.50m).
Finally, Nigeria’s men football team picked up silver in the men’s Football event after a 2-0 loss to Burkina Faso in the final.
With the closing ceremony of the 12th African Games scheduled for later today, Nigeria can add one more medal to its haul when the women’s tennis team take to the court against Kenya in the bronze medal match.
After 15 days of competition, Egypt are unchallenged at the top of the medals log with a total of 270 medals (101 Gold, 97 Silver, 72 Bronze) followed by Nigeria in second place with 126 medals (46 Gold, 33 Silver, 47 Bronze) while South Africa complete the top three with a total haul of 87 medals (36 Gold, 26 Silver, 25 Bronze).
