By Solomon Nwoke
NIGERIA’s weightlifting team to the recently concluded London 2012 Olympic Games qualifiers in Nairobi, Kenya emerged victorious on all fronts, clinching the available two slots for Africa apart from setting new African and Commonwealth records.

Nigeria also emerged the overall winner in the 2012 African Weightlifting Championship.

Team Nigeria also came  tops as the best team of the Continent in weight lifting  winning a total of 19 gold, 18 silver and 3 bronze medals.

Sensational weightlifting amazons Chinenye Fidelis (53kg weight class) and Mariam Usman (+75kg class) set new African and Commonwealth records respectively.

By this feat, the two lifters clinched the title of the best female lifters of the tournament while another Nigerian male lifter, Felix Ekpo (77kg weight class) won the prize for the best male athlete in the tournament.

Reacting to their feat, Secretary General of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF), Uche Onwumeh lauded the lifters’ achievement saying that what they have done was a tip of the iceberg of what they would do at the London 2012 Olympic Games.