Breakdown of how Team Nigeria won 64 medals at the Special Olympics in Dubai
Nigerian athletes at the 2019 Special Olympics World Games scooped a total of 33 gold, 21 silver and 10 bronze medals at the event, which ended on Thursday in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.
The final table showed that the impressive Nigerian Special Olympics athletes won 12 gold medals each in the unified football and volleyball events.
They also won four gold in athletics, two in badminton and one in cycling, dance and swimming events respectively.
The Nigerian unified basketball team, who claimed the basketball gold at the previous event in Los Angeles in the United States in 2015, won 10 silver medals this time around in Abu Dhabi.
They also won seven silver medals in badminton, three in table tennis and one in swimming.
The athletes won five bronze medals in swimming, two in athletics and badminton respectively, as well as one in table tennis.
The event, which started on March 14, had Nigeria’s Special Olympics team competing in eight events at the Games, with 60 athletes and 24 officials.
The events are athletics, badminton, basketball, football, table tennis, volleyball, swimming and cycling.
The Nigerian athletes put up a dominant display in athletics, where Chima Maduakor (shot put), Nyam Tayei (25m run), Ayokunle Akinjayeju (25m run) and Bello Damilola (100m) all won gold.
Swimmer Adedamola Roberts also claimed gold in the 50m freestyle, with Joy Abisago also winning gold in cycling.
Etim Florence and Sulaimon Nofisat, who won bronze in the girls’ singles, emerged gold medallists in the badminton girls doubles event.
Gold medallists Tayei and Akinjayeju also won bronze medals in their various events at the Games, while swimmers Treasure Chidi-Ofong- (female 100m freestyle) and Teju Ogunlela (female 50m freestyle) won silver and bronze medals respectively.
In table tennis, three Nigerian athletes namely Arek Dickson, Adewoyin Bukola and Olusoji Oluwatomisin reached the finals of their events but settled for silver after losing to their opponents. Another table tennis athlete, Bassey Wisdom, won bronze in the male singles event.
