After securing three medals on the penultimate day of the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, Team Nigeria is aiming to increase their medal tally to eight on the final day with their last two para-powerlifting events on Sunday.
On Saturday, Isau Ogunkunle (para-table tennis bronze), Bose Omolayo (para-powerlifting silver), and Flora Ugwunwa (women’s javelin silver) added to Nigeria’s medal count, bringing the total to six. The team hopes to add more medals today as Tokyo 2020 gold medallist and Commonwealth Games champion, Folashade Oluwafemiayo and Loveline Obiji compete in the women’s +86kg and 86kg categories, respectively.
Flora Ugwunwa started Saturday’s medal haul by winning silver in the Women’s Javelin F54 event with a throw of 19.26 meters. The 40-year-old maintained her place among the world’s best para-athletes, finishing second behind Uzbekistan’s Nurkhon Kurbanova, who claimed the gold with a throw of 21.12 meters, setting a new world record and breaking Ugwunwa’s Paralympic record from 2016. Iran’s Elham Salehi took the bronze with a throw of 16.24 meters.
Ugwunwa’s silver was Nigeria’s only track and field medal on Saturday, as Lauritta Onye missed the podium in the Women’s Shot Put F40 event.
Later in the day, Bose Omolayo, a gold medallist in powerlifting at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, secured another silver for Nigeria by lifting 145 kg. She finished second behind China’s Han Miayou, who broke the world record with a 154 kg lift, while Egypt’s Safaa Hassan claimed the bronze with a 139 kg lift.
In the men’s class 4 table tennis singles, Isau Ogunkunle earned a bronze medal despite a 3-1 semi-final loss to South Korea’s Kim Young-gun at the South Arena in Paris. This marked Nigeria’s first table tennis singles medal since the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, where Tajudeen Agunbiade and Alabi Olufemi won gold and bronze, respectively.
Before Saturday’s successes, Nigeria had already won three other medals in para-athletics, para-table tennis, and para-badminton. If Oluwafemiayo and Obiji secure podium finishes today, Nigeria’s medal tally will reach eight—a strong showing for a nation that had not won any medals at the Paris Olympics just a few weeks earlier.
Nigeria currently sits in joint 51st place on the medal table, alongside Ireland, with one gold, three silver, and two bronze medals.
