By Victor Okoye and Ijeoma Azubuike
ABUJA – Team Nigeria on Sunday made Glasgow 2014 to appear as the country’s best ever Commonwealth Games when it finished in eighth place on the medals table.
The 20th Commonwealth Games, which began on July 23 and ended on Aug. 3, saw Nigeria ending a successful Commonwealth Games outing with an impressive 36 medals haul.
Nigeria, with 11 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze medals, finished just a place below seventh-ranked South Africa who were Africa’s number one team on the table with 40 medals.
It also placed one rung of the ladder above Kenya, one of Africa’s athletics powerhouses, who were 10th with 25 medals.
A total of 71 countries competed at the Games, and Nigeria’s placing at the Games represented a good outing for the nation.
There were outstanding performances in athletics, wrestling, boxing, table tennis, weightlifting and para-powerlifting.
Para- powerlifting accounted for the highest number of medals with four gold and two silver medals, while athletics brought in three gold, three silver and one bronze medals.
Weightlifting had two gold, four silver and one bronze medals, while wrestling contributed two gold, two silver and eight bronze medals.
There were also three bronze and one bronze medals in boxing and table tennis respectively.
It was, however, one of the two blots in Team Nigeria’s campaign at the Games that majority of its medals came from the female athletes.
Segun Toriola and Obinna Metu in table tennis and track and field respectively were notable names among the male athletes whose performance disappointedly fell short of expectations.
Blessing Okagbare was Team Nigeria’s star athlete in Glasgow, picking up three medals and setting a new 10.85 seconds Games record.
She was on her way to becoming the second Nigerian woman to win the 100 metres title, after Mary Onyali who won in 1994 in Victoria, Canada.
Okagbare also became the fourth woman in the Games’ history to successfully complete a sprints double with her victory in the 200 metres in a time of 22.25 seconds.
The win made her the first Nigerian sprinter to win the half-lap title, and the first Nigerian to win two individual titles at the Games in track and field.
Only Onyali had, prior to Glasgow, won two titles at the same Games. [eap_ad_1] She won the individual title in the 100 metres and a team title as a member of the 4×100 metres relay team.
The team was made up of Christy Opara-Thompson, Faith Idehen, Onyali and Mary Tombiri.
Okagbare was only denied a third gold by the Jamaican quartet in the women’s 4 x 100 metres relay final.
She could have even won four medals, but the schedule for the 200 metres final clashed with the long jump event which she had also entered for.
However, the conflict ensured a new star emerged for Nigeria, as Ese Brume recovered from a poor qualifying mark to win the women’s long jump.
But it is noteworthy that it has taken all of 40 years for Nigeria to get a second gold medal in the long jump.
Modupe Oshikoya had won it in 1974 in Christchurch, New Zealand with 6.46 metres to get what also was the first gold medal by a Nigerian woman in the Games’ history.
Team Nigeria’s para-powerlifting gold medals came through Abdulazeez Ibrahim in the men’s heavyweight (from 72.1kg) class and Paul Kehinde in the men’s lightweight (up to 72kg) class.
World record holder Esther Oyema won the women’s para–powerlifting lightweight (up to 61kg) class, when she lifted 126kg in her final attempt to set a new world record.
Oyema, who also won the gold at New Delhi 2010, also lifted 136kg to cap her superb outing on the day.
Loveline Obiji also followed suit in the women’s para-powerlifting heavyweight (from 61.1kg) class when she lifted 130kg, 140kg and 144kg for a golden finish.
In wrestling, Aminat Adeniyi won gold in the women’s 58kg freestyle while Odunayo Adekuoroye clinched top spot in the women’s 53kg freestyle.
Also, Maryam Usman, the country’s flagbearer at the Games’ opening ceremony, clinched gold in the women’s +75kg weightlifting.
Just like Usman, Oluwatoyin Adesanmi added another gold medal for Team Nigeria in the 63kg category.