Lucy Ejike Wins a Third Gold for Team Nigeria At Rio Paralympics

Lucy Ejike Wins a Third Gold for Team Nigeria At Rio Paralympics

Nigeria’s impressive display at the Rio Paralympics continued Sunday as Lucy Ejike added to the gold haul of the team, and in thrilling fashion.

Ejike, who’s dominated the women’s -61kg Powerlifting event – smashing three Paralympics and world records in the process– put up another commanding display to take gold ahead of Egypt’s Fatma Omar and China’s Yan Yang.

At the Riocentro Pavillion 2, the Team Nigeria captain started off with a successful lift at 136.0kg, which then became a new Paralympic Record and World Record as well.

She then improved her record by lifting 138.0kg at the next attempt, before completing the quality outing with a massive lift of 142.0kg to eclipse the 140kg lifted by Egypt’s Omar.

Watch the record-breaking moment below.

Watch Lucy Ejike's winning reaction as she lifts 104 kg to a new world record #Rio2016 #Paralympics #Powerlifting https://t.co/xdOOYJs9un

— IPC Powerlifting (@IPCPowerlifting) September 11, 2016

Lucy, who was also the star of the London 2012 Paralympics, got a rousing ovation for her performance.

Her victory makes it five medals for Nigeria at the Games, following the gold-winning lifts of Roland  Ezuruike and Paul Kehinde in addition to the silver medals of Latifat Tijani and Esther Onyema.

Nigeria’s impressive showing at the Paralympics shows the team hasn’t dropped off from the high of London 2012 Games where they did the country proud after another terrible showing from athletes at the main event.

They’ll be looking to add to their medal haul before tournament ends on September 18th.