After Adijat Adenike Olarinoye won Team Nigeria’s first gold medal it was another weightlifter that would win the second.
Rafiatu Folashade Lawal was in dominant form in women’s 59kg Weightlifting category to give Team Nigeria their second gold medal at the games.
Lawal made a lift of 90kg (Snatch), 116kg (Clean and Jerk) and 206kg (Total) in the 59kg women’s event to emerge champion.
Her victory was a long road to success from National Youth Games Champion to National Sports Festival Champion then African Champion, African Games Champion (Record Holder) and now Commonwealth Games Champion record holder.
Rafiatu Folashade Lawal stated that she was not under pressure which aided her performance to win gold.
She said, “I’m so excited & happy because I didn’t really expect what happened today. I wasn’t under any pressure because of the support my English opponent received from the home crowd.
” I’ve trained very hard and my target coming here was to get the GOLD medal.”
In the men’s 67kg weightlifting category Edidiong Joseph Umoafia clinched a Bronze medal for Team Nigeria.
Umoafia lifted a combined 290kg (Snatch, Clean & Jerk) to get on the podium. All three medals for Team Nigeria have now come from Weightlifting.
In the men’s 71-75kg boxing category Debutant, Adeyinka Benson qualified for the quarterfinal.
It was a Nigeria vs Ghana affair as Nigeria’s Adeyinka Benson was victorious in the 3rd round, with vital points to defeat his Ghanaian opponent Abubakari Kwesi Quartey in a Round of 16 clash.
After Nigeria’s Abdul-Afeez Osoba knocked out Carl Leviticus Hield of the Bahamas in the men’s Over 67 kg category, Benson won 3-2 (win by points) and progressed to the quarterfinals of the men’s Middleweight category.