Odunayo Adekuoreye and Aminat Adeniyi gave Team Nigeria reasons to celebrate yesterday as they claimed two gold medals in wrestling. Superwoman, Maryam Usman, capped the remarkable day of excellent performance by also winning a gold medal in a gritty test of power between her and Samoa’s Ele Opeloge in the weightlifting event.
It was a glorious day for Nigeria in Glasgow as the national anthem held everybody spell-bound with rapturous celebrations coming from other athletes and officials.
Adekuoreye started the gold rush when she hammered India’s Lalita Lalita to submission, winning 5-0.
While the ovation and celebration was still on, Adeniyi did not give her Indonesian opponent, Shakishi any chance as she piled up points after points romping into a 6-0 lead.
The second round was swifter and the Nigerian still smiling while twisting and turning the Indonesian amassed more four points to gross 10 points to win the gold for Nigeria in a night that solely belonged to Nigeria.
Adeniyi also showed off her dancing prowess as she took time to dance to the admiration of the crowd. Later, Adekuoreye and Adeniyi covered by the Nigerian flag took a lap of honour, savouring the praises from fans at the wrestling venue.
Elsewhere in the competition, Superwoman Maryam Usman, was also splendid in her performance yesterday lifting Nigeria to a gold medal in weightlifting.
Usman and the Samoa lifter started their snatch lifts at 115kg. It was the Nigerian who lifted 120 and 125kg respectively while the Samoan could not lift the 125kg thereby allowing Usman to enter the Clean and Jerk with an edge.
The two who stayed back while the little lifters tried their hands on smaller weights, bounced back to finish their rivalry starting with 145kg. It was Maryam who led the way with 150 and 155kgs respectively.
Aware that the Nigerian had gone further, the Samoan opted to lift 151kg and heightened the blood pressure of Nigerians when she lifted it. In her last lift, she called for 161kg to leap-frog the Nigerian but could not cross the rubicon after succeeding in the clean and jerk but failed woefully in the snatch.
As her babel hit the ground, sporadic applause erupted from the Nigerian camp as Usman slumped on her knee giving Allah all the glory.
Team Nigerian officials were not left out of the celebration as Chef de Mission, Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye, jumped and danced to the victory.
Amas Daniel capped the evening with a bronze in the Men’s 61kg category of the wrestling event.
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