Team Nigeria’s medal haul at the ongoing 2019 African Games now stands at 15 after the country added seven medals on Sunday, 25 August to move up to 6th place on the medals table.

Nigeria’s athletes won a total of 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals in the Badminton, Basketball, Table Tennis and Weightlifting.

The country’s renaissance in badminton continued apace at the Games as it’s representatives swatted aside Egypt 3-0 in the semifinal and demolished Algeria by the same scoreline in the final to win gold in the Mixed Team Event.

There was also gold for Nigeria in Basketball as the women’s 3×3 team of Fummanya Ijeh, Abel Marvellous, Liman Musa and Ifunanya Okoro beat Kenya 16-6 in the semifinal before edging Mali 20-19 to emerge victorious in a tight final.

The men’s team of Peace Godwin, Kanyinsola Odunfuwa, Mustapha Oyebanji and Emmanuel Udumezue were not as successful, falling by a single point (18-19) to Egypt in a closely contested semifinal but made up for the loss with a bronze medal after they pipped Mali by a single point (19-18) in the third-place match.

In Table Tennis, Nigeria once again bowed in the face of Egyptian superiority as the duo of Bode Abiodun and Offiong Edem settled for bronze after falling at the semifinal stage to Ahmed Saleh and Farah Abdel-Aziz.

Three more medals were added in the Weightlifting event with King Kalu picking up silver in the men’s 55kg with a lift of 218kg. Stellar Peter also won silver with a lift of 138kg in the women’s 45kg while Augustina Nwaokolo picked up a bronze medal in the women’s 49kg with a lift of 161kg.

Team Nigeria is also assured of medals in Boxing after Abdulafeez Ayoola Osoba beat Egypt’s Hikal Mohamed in the semifinal of the men’s Welterweight (69kg) while Bolanle Temitope Shogbamu triumphed over Kus Lorna Simbi of Kenya in the women’s category.

Solomon Adebayo was too strong for Namibia’s Shooya Naftalie in the semifinal of the men’s Super Heavyweight (91kg) and Falilat Tijani progressed to the final of the women’s Lightweight (60kg) at the expense of Deandra Chestnut of Seychelles.

The country didn’t fare too well in Karate as three out of four teams (two men and one women’s team) fell at the semifinal stage of the Kumite Team event leaving just one representative in the women’s category of the event.

In Tennis, Emmanuel Sylvester defeated Ivory Coast’s Karim Ouattara in straight sets to progress to the quarterfinals of the Men’s Singles but it was a different outcome for Sunday Audu as he lost in straight sets to Egypt’s Mohamed Safwat while Joseph Ubong was forced to retire when trailing 6-4 to Wilfried Coulibaly of Ivory Coast in the R16.

There were wins for Sylvester and Ubong in the men’s doubles preliminaries and the duo of Deandra Osabuohien and Oyinlomo Quadre in the women’s doubles preliminaries. However, Mercy Aiyegbusi and Blessing Audu were knocked by the Ethiopian duo of Legeba Ali and Adan Shummet.

In Volleyball, Nigeria’s men team won their second game of Group A with a 3-1 defeat of Cape Verde (21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-23) and in Handball, the male national handball team drew 21-21 with DR Congo 21-21 in their fourth preliminary round group B game but the female team lost 28-21 to Guinea.

Egypt sit atop the medals table after ten days of action in Morocco with a haul of 85 medals (27gold, 36silver, 22bronze) followed by South Africa with a total of 51 medals (23gold, 15silver, 13bronze) while hosts Morocco round up the top three in third-place having amassed 41 medals (13gold, 11silver, 17bronze).