Nigeria hands Africa gets her first gold as Ugandan teenager makes Paralympics history

Latifat Tijani ensured that Nigeria were the first African country to feature on the Paralympic medals table by claiming a powerlifting gold.

The 39-year-old just missed out on the top podium spot in Rio five years ago, but this time emerged as champion after lifting an impressive 107kg in the women’s 45kg category.

Tijani made her intentions clear by putting 105kg on the bar for her first lift, a decision which could have gone wrong for the Lagos hairdresser after she failed with her first lift.

Tijani was successful on her second though and then managed 107kg on her third attempt. While she then tried and failed to lift 117kg, which would have been a Paralympic record, her previous effort was enough for the gold with China’s Zhe Cui taking silver with a 102kg lift and Justyna Kozdryk bronze with 101kg.

“I feel bad, because at home I was lifting 126, 127kg. You can see it on my phone. When I wasn’t able to lift 117 today it pained me,” she said afterwards.

As for converting her silver in Rio to gold in Tokyo, Tijani added: “I know that the Chinese lifters are very strong, but I promised myself that I would win my gold today. Ever since Rio 2016, when I took silver, that time I said that I would get the gold in Tokyo and I would collect it.”

Meanwhile, in the pool, Uganda’s Husnah Kukundakwe made her Paralympic debut on Thursday at the age of just 14. She may not have made it through to the SB8 100m breaststroke final, but the teenager from Kampala achieved a personal best of 1:34.35 and, as the youngest Paralympian competing in Tokyo, announced herself as a rising star of the future.

“I feel like I could touch the clouds. I am the youngest here and just seeing how the others are doing and just swimming with them is such an amazing experience,” she said afterwards.

“This is the start of my journey and I am just really excited to see how far I will go and how everything is going to be.”

Elsewhere, South Africa’s Theo Cogill once again found it tough going in his second match of the table tennis competition. The 34-year-old went down 3-0 to Brazil’s Carlos Alberto Carbinatti Junior.

Another South African in action at her fifth Paralympics was Pippa Johnson-Dwyer on Just in Time in the dressage, grade IV individual test. The four-time Paralympic medallist finished eighth to qualify for the individual freestyle test with a score of 69.780. PHOTO/COURTESY