Flora Ugwunwa set a new world record in the women’s javelin – F54 event on Tuesday at the Rio Paralympics to give Nigeria its seventh gold medal.
She recorded a throw of 20.25 metres after six attempts to win the gold medal and take Nigeria’s tally to seven gold, two silver and one bronze medals.
On a day when Nigeria’s medals’ search was looking to be futile after some failure in the favourite hunting ground of power-lifting, the athletics event provided succour.
Ugwunwa beat a field of nine to set new Paralympic and world records, while Tunisia’s Hania Aidi won the silver medal with a throw of 18.88m.
South Africa’s Ntombizanele Situ completed the African sweep of the event’s medals by winning the bronze medal with a heave of 17.90m.
Earlier in the day, Nigeria had been so close but still far from winning any medal on the day after some unsuccessful outings.
In power-lifting men’s -88kg, Opeyemi Jegede could only place fifth, while Abdulazeez Ibrahim placed sixth in power-lifting men’s -97 kg
The Games will come to an end on Sunday.
(NAN)
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