By Ben Efe, in New Delhi
Nigeria’s gold hunt at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India reached its climax on the final day of competition yesterday, with wheelchair table tennis player, Nwaka Kate Oputa winning the last gold medal for Nigeria.

Oputa overcame stage fright to upstage her Australian opponent, Catherine Marrow in the women wheelchair table tennis final. It took Oputa less than 18 minutes to do the job, after she lost the first set to Marrow 11-7.

In the second set Oputa fought herself back to reckoning. She regained her confidence as a result the encouragement given by her coach and the watching Nigerian spectators. Oputa leveled up at 5-5 and took control of the game, she never looked back as she held off the hard fighting Marrow to take the last three sets at 11-9, 12-10 and 11-9.

“I’m happy that I won the gold despite losing the first game. I was not settled at first but I thank God that I came back strongly into the game,” Oputa.

Team Nigeria captain Faith Obiora settled for the bronze. Nigeria finished 9th on the medals table with 11 gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze.  South Africa occupied the top stop among the African nations with 12 gold, 11 silver and 12 bronze. Kenya had 12 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze.

Australians were run away winners on the table with 74 gold. India was second with 38 gold, while England came third with 37. Canada was placed forth with 26 gold.