Nigerian weightlifters excited with African Games exploits
..Thumbs up NWF boss, coaches, others
Three Nigerian weightlifters; Adijat Olarinoye, Joy Eze and Mary Osijo have hailed the role played by their coaches, the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF) and others in their performance at the ongoing 2023 African Games holding in Ghana.
Adijat Olarinoye won three gold medals in the Women’s 55kg, Joy Eze also smiled home with three gold medals in the Women’s 71kg event while Mary Osijo grabbed a gold medal and two silver medals in the 87kg women’s event on Thursday.
Olarinoye who is the skipper of the Weightlifting team said she was overwhelmed with joy to have won three gold medals and was full of appreciation to the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation President, Dr. Abdul Ibrahim, the coaches and teammates for all the support that aided her victory.
“I am actually short of words. I thank God for everything and I want to thank the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation led by Dr. Abdul Ibrahim, our coaches and my wonderful teammates,” Olarinoye said.
On her part, Joy Eze thanked God for the opportunity and hailed the Weightlifting Federation, the coaches and all others that contributed to her golden performance.
“I want to appreciate God and those he used to achieve my target. I am still anxious for more,” Eze noted.
Also speaking, Osijo praised his coach who instructed her to finish all her six attempts without any default.
” To win this gold medal was not easy. I love weightlifting. Its my passion. I thank my coach for inspiring me and giving me encouragement. I also thank the NWF President, Dr Abdul Ibrahim and his team and the Sports Ministry.”
The President of the NWF, Abdul Ibrahim stressed that he was delighted with the 16 gold medals which could still increase but that his Federation is working on breaking the 16 gold medals the sport won in Morocco in 2019 which has now been equalled.
“We have had a good result, but I believe that in future tournaments, we will plan to surpass the 16 gold medals won at the 12th African games in Morocco.
As at the last count the Weightlifters have won 16 gold, 7 Silver and 6 Bronze medals with the result of Lucky Joseph in the Men’s +109kg event still being awaited as at the time of filing this report.
