The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NSF 2024

  • NSF 2024: Akinsanmi, Olajide win historic gold medals for Team Ogun

    NSF 2024: Akinsanmi, Olajide win historic gold medals for Team Ogun

    The duo of Omolola Tobiloba Akinsanmi and Owolabi Olajide yesterday etched their names into the history by winning historic gold medals  for Ogun State  in the swimming  and golf events  at the on-going

     22nd  National Sports Festival otherwise known as Gateway Games Ogun 2024.

    The UK-based Akinsanmi, practically defied the odds to win the state’s  first  gold  medal  at this games  as well as its first-ever gold medal in the women’s 800-meter freestyle in swimming.

    In her extraordinary display at the new Olympic size swimming pool  inside the  MKO Abiola Sports Arena,  the young swimmer  staged comeback as she found herself in third place 400 late in the event, but turned on the heat to secure the top spot.

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    A visibly happy Akinsanmi said  winning the women’s 800-metre  freestyle was by no means  an easy task  but a dint of hard work  after rigorous years of training.

     “The 800 is a very long event, so I had to prepare mentally, even though I started in third, I kept telling myself, ‘I’m ready. I’m going to win this’,” she said. “At the halfway mark, I pushed harder and started gaining speed. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to get this gold’ and I did.”

    News of Akinsanmi’s sensational feat in  the swimming pool was yet to die down when  Olajide  also  stroked  his way  in the golf course  by clinching  the gold medal in the Stroke Play Amateur  golf event.

    Ogun State won Bayelsa on sudden death with the gross scores of 72 while Niger played 76 gross.

    Following their  sensational victories both , Akinsanmi and Olajide  is  each guaranteed a N 2.5 million gift promised by the Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun.

  • NSF 2024: Rivers’, Lagos’ lifters  grabs gold medals in weightlifting

    NSF 2024: Rivers’, Lagos’ lifters  grabs gold medals in weightlifting

    Ruth Nyong of Rivers State and African Champion, Omolola Onome Didih of Lagos State were the outstanding performers of Day 2 of the Weightlifting event of the on-going Ogun 2024 National Sports Festival tagged the Gateway Games Ogun 2024.

    Both Weightlifters put up impressive performances to win four gold medals and two silvers for their states in the women’s 49kg and 55kg categories.

    In the Women’s 49kg class, Nyong won two gold and one silver medal. She lifted 75kg to claim gold in the snatch and she got the second gold in her total lift of 167kg. Nyong, originally from Akwa Ibom,  handed Rivers State additional silver medal with her 92kg lift in the Clean & Jerk.

    In the same weight class, Ebele Chukwu Vanessa Agbah of Delta State bagged a gold in the Clean & Jerk with her 93kg lift and a Silver medal with her lift of 164kg.

    In the snatch, Quadri Zainab of Lagos grabbed a silver with her lift of 72kg while Adamma Dorcas Anyimba of Kano got a bronze with her lift of 71kg.

    The same Anyimba also got a bronze medal with her total lift of 157kg. Monica Uweh of Ogun State finished with a bronze medal in the Clean & Jerk with her 88kg lift.

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    In the Women’s 55kg, African Games Gold medallist, Didih of Lagos won two gold medals in the snatch and total with her lifts of 93kg and 205kg in that order. She was however beaten in the Clean & Jerk by determined Theresa Daniel Okon of Akwa Ibom State who lifted 113kg to win the gold medal. Didih finished a kilogram behind for a silver and her third medal.

    Temidayo Jegede of Kano claimed two silver and a bronze medal to add to the pyramids’ state’s medals’ haul. She lifted 77kg in the snatch and 175kg total lift for her two silver medals before her bronze in the Clean & Jerk with a lift of 98kg. Joy Chima from Lagos got the remaining two bronze medals with her lifts of 71kg and 168kg in the snatch and total.

    Meanwhile, 2023 African Games Gold medallist, King Kalu of Cross River State and  Esther Amarachi Chijoke of Invited Junior Athletes (IJA) bagged five gold medals combined for their states in the men’s 55kg.

    In the Men’s 55kg, Kalu secured three gold medals for Cross River with a total lift of 215kg comprising of 94kg lift in snatch and 121kg lift in Clean & Jerk.

    Elechi Nnadozie Elvis of Bayelsa State won a silver medal in the snatch with a lift of 93kg while Abayomi Adeleye of Ekiti State got the bronze medal in the snatch with 92kg.

    Tobi Ishola of Oyo claimed a silver in the Clean & Jerk with a lift of 118kg and he got a further bronze medal in the total with 206kg.

    Representing Bayelsa State, John Solomon won a bronze medal in the Clean & Jerk with a lift of 117kg and a silver medal in the total with a lift of 207kg.

    In the women’s 45kg, Esther Amarachi Chijoke of the Invited Junior Athletes (IJA) captured two goals medals in the Clean & Jerk and total with a lift of 82kg and 146kg respectively and she added a silver medal in the snatch with a lift of 64kg.

    Ronke Olarinoye (Lagos) was the overall second in the women’s 45kg with a gold in the snatch with a lift of 65kg and a bronze medal in the total with 140kg.

    Christiana Alloma of Rivers State won two silver and a bronze medal. She got a bronze medal in the snatch with a lift of 61kg while she added two silver medals in the Clean & Jerk (81kg) and total 142kg.