Flora Ugwunwa successfully defended her Paralympic crown on Saturday drawing the curtains on Team Nigeria’s participation at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, by winning gold in the women’s F54 Javelin event.
Ugwunwa threw a Season’s Best of 19.39 metres on her fifth attempt and was the only athlete to go over the 19-metre mark on the day, winning the event to make it two consecutive titles since debuting at the Games in 2016.
Also, she was the last Nigerian athlete competing in Tokyo and being a favourite, she knew the weight of expectations on her shoulders, wrapping it up in style winning Nigeria’s 10th Paralympic medal in Tokyo.
Uzbekistan’s Nurkhon Kurbanova led with 18.38 metres and had completed her throws, before Ugwunwa took to the field. Ugwunwa on her first attempt, matched Kurbanova’s best mark, and then went into the lead on her second attempt throwing 19.08 metres.
In the women’s F40 Shot Put, Lauritta Onye was the second Nigerian athlete to get on the podium on Saturday, finishing 3rd to settle for Bronze with a Season’s Best throw of 8.29 metres.
She relinquished her Paralympic title and the former record which stood at 8.40 metres, but Polish athlete and World Record holder, Renata Sliwinska was in a league of her own, throwing a new Personal Record of 8.75 metres to win gold.
Tunisia’s Nourhein Belhaj threw a new Personal Best of 8.33 metres to get the Silver medal as Onye got Bronze with 8.29 metres.
With two medals won in Athletics, Nigeria’s overall tally came to 10 medals spread across three sports which are powerlifting, athletics and men’s table tennis team event.
Powerlifting accounted for the most, six: three gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
Then three in Athletics: one gold, two bronze medals and table tennis with one bronze.
With the games coming to a close on Sunday, Team Nigeria currently occupy 31st position on the medal table.
(Editor Paul Akhagbemhe)
