Francis Ajuonuma

Despite Team Nigeria’s failure to surpass their Rio 2016 Paralympics performance at the recently concluded 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, the Nigeria Paralympic Committee (NPC) insists that the team deserves commendation for their outing in Japan.

Team Nigeria was only able to win 4 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze medals to finish 33rd at the games, a drop compared to the 12 medals of 8 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze medals won at Rio 2016 games which saw the country finished 17th on the medals table.

However, Secretary-General of Nigeria Paralympic Committee, Suleiman Isah, who spoke with TNSports, while reviewing team Nigeria performance at the games, said contrary to the position of some few, it was an impressive and successful outing for Nigeria, especially, in the face of the  covid-19  pandemic which disrupted a lot of programmes in the country, including team Nigeria preparation for the games.

“Honestly, I’m so happy and impressed with our performance in Japan, considering the fact that the lockdowns that followed the Covid-19 pandemic hampered our preparation for the games.

“Of course, our aim was to surpass our previous performance, the athletes did their best and were able to win 10 medals for the country, despite the difficulties they had to contend with, due to the lockdown.

And for four times the national anthem of Nigeria was played during the medal presentation ceremony, it was really exciting and I think the team deserves to be commended and appreciated by Nigerians,” he said.

The NPC Secretary also disclosed that the committee had a lot of positives to take from the games which they will implement in the country without delay.

“For the first time in the history of Paralympic Games, Wheelchair Badminton was played in the games and we at NPC are happy with what we saw and we’re going to introduce it in the country and develop it fast so that we could contest for a place at the next Paralympic Games at France 2024,” he concluded.