Team Nigeria Paralympians Assure Of Medal Haul In Tokyo

A man stands next to the Olympic rings at dusk in Yokohama on July 2, 2021. (Photo by Philip FONG/ AFP)

With less than a week to the commencement of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, Team Nigeria athletes have assured supporters of an impressive outing in Tokyo.

Speaking to journalists on Sunday In Abuja, the Paralympics Captain, Lucy Ejike said, “we have been training seriously to make sure we meet up with the standard we set at previous games. Everything is going on well. We are confident we will bring glory to Nigeria. We have world records, so we hope to maintain the records and create new ones”.

Speaking in a similar vein, Para Powerlifter, Nnamdi Innocent, expressed appreciation to the Sports Minister for motivating the team.

“We are grateful to the Minister for his support and encouragement, what he did for us during the lockdown will motivate us to excel in Tokyo. We have many world records and our target is to go there and make Nigeria proud,” he said.

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics games will be Nigeria’s 8th consecutive appearance since her maiden appearance at Barcelona 1992.

Nigeria had her most successful outing at Rio 2016, finishing as Africa’s best team and 17th overall in the world on the medals table with eight gold, two silver and two bronze medals.

Nigeria will participate in four events at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics viz; Powerlifting, Para-Athletics, Para-Table Tennis and Para-Rowing.

The team is expected to depart for Japan this week.