5th October, 2010
The feat recorded by schoolgirl Augustina Nkem Nwaokolo who won a gold medal in the 48kg weightlifting event at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in India is a morale booster for Team Nigeria as they seek for more gold medals at the Games.
Nwaokolo defiled all odds to set a new Games’ record in the weightlifting event yesterday leaving home girls Soniya Chanu and Sandhya Rani to win silver and bronze medals respectively.
Nwaokolo’s success has opened the way for other Nigerian athletes who will be competing in the boxing and wrestling events of the Games today with the hope of doing Nigeria proud.
The pair of pugilists Ganiu Muideen and Lukman Lawal will fight in the 64kg and 75kg categories respectively in the boxing event, while the hosts are already dreading Nigerian wrestlers who they see as their main opponents when the event gets underway today.
Monday Merontohun has already led the country’s male team to beat Kenya 3-0 in the table tennis event, while they will face Scotland in the next round of the event today.
Meanwhile, the Games’ organising chief Suresh Kalmadi has disclosed that they are looking into the possibility of filling the empty seats with schoolchildren, anything has to be better than turned up plastic seats.
Though about 2million tickets were made available for the multi-sport Games, but rumours have long circulated in the capital that the response has been lackluster amid delays in finalising the sales network.