PARIS24: OYO WEIGHTLIFTER QUALIFIES FOR THE NEXT OLYMPICS

Rafiat Lawal, 27 year old weightlifting athlete from Oyo State has qualified to participate in the next Olympic ganes at the recently concluded final Qualifiers tournament held in Phucket, Thailand.

Rafiat secured eight position among over sixty athletes that participated in the compettion which made her set a new African record with snatch 101 and clean and jack 126, amounting to a total of 227.

Earlier Rafiat won three gold medals at this year All African Games held in Ghana shortly before she was invited for the qualifiers competition.

The Oyo born athlete also won three gold medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham. In recognition of her numerous unquantifiable achievements and unique feats the federal Government honoured her with Member of the Order of Niger along with monetary compensation. Similarly the Commonwealth champion was adequately rewarded by the State Government as well.

The Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games will take place in France as from 26th July to 11th August 2024. It will be 19 days of competition featuring 41 sports and 392 events with 758 sessions while 10,500 athletes will participate fully.