Olympics Qualifier: Continues to shine at the senior Africa weightlifting championship in Tunisia as Akano Desmond Goes For Gold Today
By Rasheed Adewuyi
Nigeria weightlifters have continued to churn out impressive performances in their quest for Paris 2024 Olympics qualification.
On Tuesday, May 16, two Nigerian weightlifters won six more medals at the ongoing 2023 Senior Africa Weightlifting Championship in Tunisia (which also serves as Olympics 2024 qualifiers), after Joy Eze Ogbonne won three silver and Edidiong Umofia won a silver and two bronze medals.
Competing in the 71kg women category, Joy Eze won three silver medals in snatch, Clean & Jerk, as well as Total.
Eze lifted a total of 227 kg to settle for three silver medals narrowly behind gold winner, Egyptian Said Neama Said Fahm.
The 2022 National Sports Festival, (NSF) gold medalist lifted 102 kilos in snatch, 125 kilos in Clean & Jerk, and 227 kilos in Total to claim all the silver medals.
She finished second in the three events behind Egyptian’s Neama, who lifted a total 229 kg to win the three gold on offer, while Ketty Lent of Mauritius finished third with three bronze medals with a combined lift of 197kg.
On his part, 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze winner, Edidiong Umofia won silver in the 73 kg men snatch. He also won two bronze medals in the Clean & Jerk as well as the Total.
Edidiong, who also won gold medals at the 2022 NSF, won silver with 142 kilos, and won two bronze medals in Clean & Jerk, and Total, with a lift of 170 kilos and 312 kilos, respectively.
Nigeria has so far won a total of 12 medals at the ongoing Senior Africa Weightlifting Championship in Tunisia.
Recall that Lawal Rufiatu Folashade and Olarinoye Adenike Adijat began Nigeria’s medal quest with 3 gold and 3 silver medals on Monday, in that order.
The four lifters thus far have won 3 gold, 7 silver, and 2 bronze medals at the championship, which also serves as the Olympics 2024 qualifiers.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s medal haul at the championship is expected to continue on the rise on Wednesday afternoon as Akano Desmond will be competing in the 89kg men category by 2pm.
The 2019 All Africa Games silver medal winner is hoping to add more medals to Nigeria’s collections.
The Senior Africa Weightlifting Championship which got underway in Tunisia on Wednesday last week will be rounded off on Saturday, May 20.
Nigeria will conclude her involvement in the championship today. The Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, NWF sponsored five athletes to the championship.
