Glasgow Commonwealth Games: Nigeria wins First Medal on First day as England tops Medals Table
Opeyemi Oladunjoye
Nigeria won her first medal at the ongoing Glasgow Commonwealth Games on Thursday – the first day at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games – as Nkechi Opara picked up a bronze in the women’s 48kg class weightlifting competition which took place at the Clyde Auditorium.
Opara scored 70 points in the snatch category and 92 in the clean and jerk to come in third behind the Indian duo of Sanjita Khumukcham and Mirabai Chanu Saikhom who won the gold and silver respectively. She had a total of 162 points, while the two other medallists recorded 170 and 173.
In what was her debut in the sport, Opara did very well in competition with veterans like Khumukcham who began her weightlifting career in 2006 in Manipur. Saikhom had emerged as the best lifter at the 2013 Junior National Championship in Guwahati, India.
Team Nigeria’s female table tennis team also had a win in the first day of the games as they beat their Kenyan counterparts in the first tie of in Pool D.
Led by team captain, Funsho Oshonaike, the Nigerian team beat the Kenyans by three games to nil and now look forward to facing the likes of India, England, Trinidad & Tobago, Tanzania and Ghana.
Similarly, the men beat Bangladesh by three games to nil in their Pool D tie. Team Nigeria hopes to add to its medal haul as the games continue on Friday.
Host nation, Scotland had a successful first day also as Team Scotland won 10 medals, including four golds, to claim third place in the medal table. England leads the table with six golds out of 17 medals on day one. Australia second with 15 medals, including 5 gold medals.
South Africa leads African countries with 2 Bronze medals, Ghana and Nigeria follow with a Bronze medal each.
About 4,500 athletes from 71 nations are taking part in the Games, which run until 3 August.
