Ejike pushed to bronze
Nigeria’s World and Paralympic Games record holder in the women -61kg Para Powerlifting was on Saturday afternoon pushed two steps down to settle for bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Ejike who successfully listed 130kg in her first attempt lost the pole position to old time that rival Amalia Perez of Mexico who lifted 131kg in her final attempt to improve on the 125 and 126kg first and second attempts.
Kuziena Ruza of Uzbekistan took the silver with her final look lift of 130kg improving after failing to lift 126kg in her first and second attempts.
Ejike booked 135kg in her second and final chance but was flagged red by all three judges on both occasions.
Earlier in the day, Nigeria’s entry in the -71kg class, Innocent Nnamdi, also failed to record any score having failed to lift the 200kg he booked in all three attempts.
Reigning world and Paralympic champion, Guskon Bonnie Bunyau of Malaysia retained his title with a final 228kg lift while Egypt’s Atria Mohammed had silver with 191kg in his final attempt, leaving the bronze for Yule Micky of Great Britain who started with 180kg and finished with 182kg.