Olympics qualifier: Team Nigeria wins 6 medals at weightlifting championship in Egypt

Team Nigeria weightlifters Rafiatu Folashade Lawal and Adijat Adenike Olarinoye won six medals at the ongoing 2024 Africa Senior Weightlifting Championship in Egypt on Monday.

Competing in the 59kg women’s category, Lawal and Adijat dominated the category as they carted away the top prizes on the first day of the championship, which also serves as the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifier.

Lawal, the gold medal winner in Tunisia last year, established her superiority in the category as she once again claimed all three available gold medals.

She won the first gold with a lift of 95kg in snatch, claimed another gold in clean and jerk with 119 kg, and won her third gold medal in total with 214kg.

Adijat, on her part, followed suit on her previous year’s outing, as she claimed all three silver medals: 94kg in snatch, 115kg in clean and jerk, and 209kg in total.

Meanwhile, Edidiong Umoafia Joseph will today at noon seek to consolidate Nigeria’s quest for more medals and a place in the Paris Olympics scheduled to begin in July as he competes in the 73kg men’s category.

Umoafia won a silver and two bronze medals at the Tunisia 2023 edition in spite of his injury.

Nigeria’s participation in the championship will be rounded off on Wednesday when Joy Eze Ogbonne competes in the 71kg women’s category.