Nigerian Medals at London 2012 Paralympics: 6G 5S 2B Final

[folem]

Two more gold and London 2012 would be our best Paralympics performance to date.

Two more Gold medals makes it 6.

http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/c ... index.html

Naija won 7 Gold medals in 2000.

[Prince]

Ok para olympians complain about allowance.....do this officials have any heart at all. what a bunch of jokers

[fabio]

One more Gold... yeah Powerlifting

[pajimoh]

One more Gold... yeah Powerlifting

Loveline Obiji - GOLD Congrats Girl

[Damunk]

Interesting conversation I had today with a Zim colleague who witnessed one of our gold winning powerlifters.
She said Nigeria was doing "really well" and was happy we were 'representing' Africa on the medals table.
Even though I said we could be doing far better, her take was that it was "a reflection of how civilised a country is" and "their positive attitude towards disbled people". lapping up this rare praise of Nigeria, I ppinted out that we were, after all "a big country".
She countered me by pointing to India. "Look at India and their population. I didnt see them on the medals table".

It felt good, actually.

[Player]

So proud of these guys !!!!!

[Tbite]

I love these photos. You know the famous 1996 Womens Relay....team from Nigeria were in a Pritzker winning photo.

These photos are not quite pritzker quality....but there is something special about them.

[Tbite]

Better make that 6 Gold

Anozie wins gold as well

[living]

Nice 6 G 5 S 1 B..Well done, we do need to change the way we fund sports, the officials are corrupt and ways must be found to ensure this does not resurface.

[Oba]

All 12 of our medals have come from powerlifting so far. Kudos to the powerlifters!

Powerlifting ended yesterday, so now, it's the turn of athletics, to hopefully produce something extra to smile about. One more gold and it would be our best paralympics ever in terms of gold. Two more medals and it would be our best in terms of medals won.

[Oba]

Athletics medals for Nigeria:

2008: 2G 1S
2004: 4G 1S
2000: 1G
1996: 2G 1S
1992: 2G

We've never failed to win a gold medal in athletics, and we've typically had 2. Hoping this continues.

[pajimoh]

All 12 of our medals have come from powerlifting so far. Kudos to the powerlifters!

Powerlifting ended yesterday, so now, it's the turn of athletics, to hopefully produce something extra to smile about. One more gold and it would be our best paralympics ever in terms of gold. Two more medals and it would be our best in terms of medals won.

We need 2 more gold to make it the best ever. We are currently on 6 and have won 7 gold medals before in 2000.

[Oba]

All 12 of our medals have come from powerlifting so far. Kudos to the powerlifters!

Powerlifting ended yesterday, so now, it's the turn of athletics, to hopefully produce something extra to smile about. One more gold and it would be our best paralympics ever in terms of gold. Two more medals and it would be our best in terms of medals won.

We need 2 more gold to make it the best ever. We are currently on 6 and have won 7 gold medals before in 2000.

Yes, but the time we had 7 Gold medals, it was 7G, 1S, 5B. Now we already have 6G, 5S, 1B, so one more gold sees us bettering our Sydney 2000 haul.

Now if you still want to argue that I said 'Gold', well, 7 will equal the existing best, and it would still be our 'best'.

[Oba]

3 Nigerians competing for medals this evening: Eucharia Iyiazi in Javelin Throw, and Frank Johnwill and Suwaibidu Galadima in 100m T46. Good luck to them!

[fabio]

Oba, like you rightly pointed out in the Chioma thread.

Nigeria's success in turning silver into gold
By Stephen Dowling
BBC News
Nigeria's powerlifters have been a sensation at the London Paralympics
Nigeria came back from the Olympics without a single medal, but their Paralympians have picked up a clutch of medals, including several golds.

Why are they succeeding where the Olympians failed?

"It is amusing that even war-torn Afghanistan went away with a bronze medal in taekwondo, a sport in which we had a strong medal hope," wrote Taiwo Gidado in Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper.
"In basketball and the sprints, our athletes were expected to, at least, win a bronze. All hopes were dashed in the few sports in which we competed."

President Goodluck Jonathan called for a complete overhaul of Nigerian sports administration after the Games, saying the country needed to regain its "past glory". It was Nigeria's worst display in the Olympics for 20 years.
Things have been different, however, when it comes to Nigeria's Paralympics team. As of Wednesday, the country's Paralympics team had already won 12 medals, including six golds.

Why is their disabled team getting the golds when their Olympian counterparts can't get on to the podium?
Nigeria's London success comes off the back of a sizeable medal haul at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. There, the team won nine medals, including four golds, with six of their medals coming in the powerlifting events.

The seeds of Nigeria's success were sown in Beijing

"Team Nigeria was successful in London 2012 because early preparations by the sports commission and government supported them financially with a training tour of more than two months in South Korea," Aliyu Tanko from the BBC's Hausa Service says.
"Based on the fact that most medals won by Nigeria in Beijing were in powerlifting, the country's sports body focused mainly on developing talents in that aspect, and the four silver medals won in powerlifting were converted into gold medals in London.

"So far, the medals won are in the sports they mastered for years, even though many expected the disabled athletes to perform well in wheelchair table tennis."

The Paralympics has "generated a lot of comments and debates in social networks", Mr Tanko says.
"Many are praising the performance of the disabled and criticising the athletes who could not win any medals during the Olympics."

It is hard for any sport to draw attention away from football, which is the most popular game in Nigeria. But success may attract extra funding.
The BBC's Matthew Kenyon watched powerlifting at the ExCel Arena on Wednesday and said the Paralympic team were "very aware and proud of the fact that they've brought a lot of success to the country.
"They're slightly reluctant to get into the whole Olympic/Paralympic comparison but are certainly very aware of it."
He spoke to the country's weightlifting coach Patience Igbiti, who was a medal winner at Beijing. She said: "We are focused and determined.

"All our lifters are disciplined, and we are focused, we know what we are looking for. Our goal here is to get up to nine gold medals.

"We started our training for the Paralympics Games in 2010."

They missed their Gold medal target.

Madam Patience are the people we need in sport development. The goal is to transfer the lessons learnt to other disciplines.

[Oba]

The last of our athletes has competed. The final tally: 6 Gold, 5 Silver, 2 Bronze. Congrats Team Nigeria!

[realtrouble]

The target was 9 gold medal and I truly thought that we could have hit 10 gold medal. but congrats to the team. Now we must convert this success into a welfare program for the disabled in Nigeria

[MI5]

Congrats to all the Athletes... They've done very well and made Nigeria proud... Great stuff...