Eucharia Iyiazi wins gold in shot put at 2022 CWG

Eucharia Iyiazi

Eucharia Iyiazi has won gold in the women’s F55-57 shot put final at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Iyiazi threw a new Commonwealth Games record of 10.03m on Saturday which happened to also be her season-best performance.

The paralympian’s third and fourth attempts saw her with 9.54m and 9.65m throws while her fifth — which turned out to be the highest — won her the gold medal.

Her compatriot Ugochi Alam won bronze in the same event on Saturday. She grabbed bronze with a throw of 9.30m.

Cameroon’s Arlette Fokoa won the silver medal.

Iyiazi has competed at four paralympics taking two gold, a silver and two bronze medals.

The 48-year-old competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. There, she won a gold medal in both the women’s shot put F57/F58 event and the women’s discus throw F57/F58 event. At the Beijing Paralympics, Iyiazi set the world and Paralympic record for the F58 class in shot put and discus.

Iyiazi took a bronze medal in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London and then threw 27.54m to again take the discus bronze at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

Meanwhile, Esther Isa and Temitope Adeshina competed in the women’s high jump final on Saturday, finishing ninth and 10th respectively.

Both athletes jumped an identical height of 1.81m, which was not good enough for a podium finish.

As of press time, Team Nigeria is sixth on the medals table with nine gold, four silver and nine bronze medals, knocking down South Africa as the best performing African team.