Paralympic powerlifter Nnamdi Innocent has won a bronze medal for Team Nigeria at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Innocent earned a total point of 132.5 in the final of the men’s lightweight after three attempts.
He finished behind Englishman Mark Swan who won silver with 145.5 points.
Malaysia’s Bonnie Gustin claimed the gold medal after finishing first with a total of 154.6 points, a new Commonwealth Games record.
Another Nigerian Thomas Kure placed fourth with the same number of points as Innocent.
Nigeria now has a total of nine medals – three gold, one silver and five bronze medals.
Innocent represented Nigeria at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and won the bronze medal in the men’s 72 kg event.
The 41-year-old won the gold medal in the men’s 72 kg event at the 2018 African Para Powerlifting Championships held in Algiers, Algeria. He won the bronze medal in the men’s 72 kg event at the 2019 World Para Powerlifting Championships held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
In 2021, he did not perform a successful lift in the men’s 72 kg event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Meanwhile, Team Nigeria’s women’s medal hopefuls Latifat Tijani and Onyinyechi Mark were both disqualified from the women’s lightweight final event.
The athletes were disqualified for coming late for kits’ assessment.
But the ministry of youth and sports development has appealed against their disqualification to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
“Team Nigeria powerlifters did not arrive late for their event at the Commonwealth Games. Based on speculation in the media, there was also no query about the kits as they were approved at the technical meeting held on August 1, 2022.
“The decision to disqualify Latifat Tijani and Mark Onyinye Gift has been appealed by Nigeria to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC),” an official of the ministry was quoted by Leadership Newspaper as saying.
