Nigeria’s Rafiatu Folashade Lawal has clinched Gold in the final of the women’s 59kg weightlifting event in the ongoing XXII Commonwealth Games holding in Birmingham.
The 25-year-old lifted 90kg at the Snatch category, setting a new Commonwealth Games Record.
At the clean & jerk category, she lifted 110kg at the first attempt, then at the second attempt lifted 115kg to set the Commonwealth Games Record, and then on the third attempt set another Commonwealth Games World Record, lifting 116kg.
A combined 206kg is a new Commonwealth Games Record in the women’s 59kg weightlifting event.
England’s Jessica Gordon Brown (Silver: 197kg) and Canada’s Tali Darsigny (Bronze: 196kg) also scored podium finishes.
Prior to this tournament, Rafiatu won Gold at the 2019 All-African Games in Rabat, another Gold at the 2021 African Championships in Nairobi and later Gold at the 2021 Commonwealth Qualifiers in the Uzbek Capital, Tashkent: all in the women’s 59kg weightlifting event.