Female shot put ace, Eucharia Iyiazi is still relishing her bronze medal feat at the ongoing Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, as it increased Team Nigeria’s medals haul eight overall on the log, megasportsarena.com reports.
Iyiazi’s feat in the women’s seated shot put event took Nigeria’s medals tally at the Tokyo Games to three gold, one silver and four bronze medals, with the country now standing 32nd heading into the closing ceremony on Sunday.
In making her mark during the final of the F57 class women’ shot at Tokyo Olympic Stadium, Iyiazi had a season best throw of 10.40 metres to finish third, while China’s Xu Milan heaved 10.81m to finish second and win the silver medal.
The gold medal, though, went to Algeria’s Safia Djelal, who is the world and Paralympic record-holder in the F56 class of the event, as she also created a new global mark of 11.29m to finish top in the F57 contest.
Similar excitement is reeling through the mind of Folashade Olufemiayo, who expressed relief in winning a gold medal in the para-powerlifting -86 kg class, as she earlier won silver at the 2012 Games in London but was unable to participate at Rio 2016 due to maternity leave.
However, the story was different for her in The Land of The Rising Sun, where she broke the global record she set at the World Paralympic Championship in Manchester, England with a lift of 152 kg to become Paralympics champion.
The world champion went on to declare that the birth of her child in 2016 encouraged her to keep on seeking the best in sports and she vowed to do her best to ensure she achieve the ultimate prize in Tokyo.
Olufemiayo told The Nation newspaper: “I feel very good and great to be a Paralympic Champion. I believed in myself and I am glad I made Nigerians proud.
“I feel on top of the world and I am certain it was by the grace of God this was made possible. I wasn’t able to go to the last Paralympic Games because I gave birth to my child at around that time.”
