And the medals keep coming for Team Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games, as the women’s freestyle wrestling pair of Odunayo Adekuoroye and Aminat Adeniyi clinched gold in just a quarter of an hour of the day’s medal event.
Adekuoroye, 20, compensated for her first round loss to Canadian World and Olympic champion Canadian Carol Huynh in Delhi four years ago by defeating India’s Lalita Lalita 5-0 to clinch the first gold medal of the day in the wrestling competition.
And not quite a quarter of an hour long inside the wrestling arena at the SECC precinct, 21-year-old Adeniyi beat another Indian wrestler Sakshi Malik to win the women’s 58kg freestyle final.
Adekuoroye’s route to Wednesday’s final had had her eliminate Canada’s Jill Gallay, 27, and Cameroon’s Christelle Lemofack Letchidjio, 23, in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
Adeniyi got the better of England’s Sarah Grundy, 23, and New Zealand’s Tayla Ford, 21, in her previous two rounds on the mat.
Hannah Reuben, 20, beat South Africa’s Refilwe Molongwana 4-1 in the women’s 69kg freestyle wrestling bronze medal final.
InformationNigeria’s attention then shifted to the Clyde Auditorium, where it appeared Kaduna-born Usman was going to hit another high in the women’s +75kg weightlifting after Samoa’s defending champion Ele Opeloge spilled her attempt to set a new Games record at 161kg in her final attempt on the clean and jerk.
Usman, 23, hit the deck and finished off her best attempt in the second phase of the contest, lifting a 151kg weight to add to her previous 124 from the snatch stage and complete an overall score of 280kg.
As well as not drawing a single no-lift decision in both phases of the final, Usman was too good for the reigning champion, who at some point appeared to have been stretched by the Nigerian’s ability.
New Zealand’s Tracey Lambrechs took bronze after lifting a total weight of 237kg.
As at time of report, Nigeria have won six gold medals, five silver medals and eight bronze and climbed to eighth on the medal ladder.
Elsewhere, Team England’s Leon Rattigan beat Nigeria’s Soso Tamarau in the bronze medal final of men’s 97kg freestyle wrestling 12-2.
