Teenage weightlifter Taiwo Liadi has won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK.
Liadi, who competed in the women’s 76kg weightlifting event set a new junior Commonwealth Games record by lifting 120kg in the clean and jerk to beat 11 competitors to the silver medal.
The 19-year-old on Tuesday, August 2 finished second behind Canada’s Maya Laylor, who set a new Commonwealth Games record in the clean and jerk with a lift of 128kg.
Overall, Laylor got 228 points while Liadi garnered 216 points. Nauru’s Maximina Uepa finished in third place.
Nigeria now has five medals altogether — two gold, one silver and two bronze medals — and all of them came from weightlifting.
Adijat Olarinoye and Rafiat Lawal claimed the two gold medals in the women’s 55kg and 59kg categories respectively and set new Commonwealth Games records.
Olarinoye set a new Games record with a lift of 203kg – 92kg in Snatch and 111 in Clean and Jerk while Lawal clinched gold with a total lift of 206kg – 110kg in Snatch and 116kg in Clean and Jerk – to win the women’s 59kg weightlifting event.
Later on Tuesday, Mary Osijo will compete in the women’s 87kg being the last competitor for Nigeria in the weightlifting event.
Nigeria currently sits in 10th position on the medals table. Australia tops the chart with 71 medals, followed by England with 56. New Zealand completes the top three with 24 medals. South Africa is currently the best performing African nation at the games with 12 medals.
