Two members of the Invited Junior Athletes for the 22nd National Sports Festival in Ogun State, Amarachi Chijioke and Scholastical Tekumbur, outshone elite athletes in the 45kg women’s weightlifting event, winning two gold, one silver and one bronze on Sunday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The weightlifting event began on the opening competitive day at the NYSC Orientation camp, Sagamu, just as other events like kung fu, deaf badminton and badminton also got underway in Ikenne and Abeokuta, respectively.
Chijioke claimed two gold medals in clean and jerk with the best lift of 82kg while she totalled 146kg for the total haul.
Her IJA counterpart, Tekumbur, also claimed the bronze in clean and jerk with the best lift of 78kg after Rivers State’s Christina Allorima, who took silver with 81kg.
Dubbed the 38th state, the IJA team at the NSF comprises over 100 teenage athletes selected from across Nigeria to compete against more established counterparts in nine sports.
It was created by the National Sports Commission to provide the young athletes a rare platform to test their skills on a grand stage while accelerating their development in a highly competitive environment.
“We created the Invited Junior Athletes concept because we believe in the talents of young people who are bound in this country. If you have gone to the Youth Games and you are a champion, let us then see how you grow into the elite cadre. And the only way you can grow into that cadre is by competing and beating the elite athletes.”
The sports the IJA athletes will compete in at the NSF consist; athletics, badminton, football, para athletics, swimming, table tennis, tennis, wrestling and weightlifting.
Meanwhile, Lagos State’s Ronke Olarinoye had won gold for Lagos in the women’s snatch, lifting a best of 65kg to edge Chijioke, who lifted 64kg, while Allorima of Rivers claimed the bronze with a best snatch of 61kg.
Olarinoye’s gold was won at 12:57 pm, and could well be the first medal of the 2024 National Sports Festival – pending the confirmation of the Main Organising Committee as other medal events also took place on Sunday.
Abiodun Adewale
Abiodun, who reports Sports for PUNCH, covers different tiers of the Nigerian football league, the national teams, as well as cricket, in the last six years
