Twenty three Nigerian athletes and six coaches have been picked to participate in the forthcoming Rio 2016 Paralympic Games slated between 7th and 18th of September in Rio, Brazil.
The media officer of the Paralympics Committee, Patrick Ibeh said that Nigeria would be competing in only three sports where it has comparative advantage, saying that the games are athletics, powerlifting and table-tennis.
Ibeh said that six athletes made up of five females and one male would compete in athletics event, while fourteen athletes (7 males and 7 females) would participate in powerlifiting. Table-tennis has three ping ponders (2 males and 1 female).
Some of the selected athletics are Hannah Babalola, Eucharia Iyiazi, Lauritta Onye, Lovina Onyegbule, Flora Ugwunwa and Friday Aibangbe, the only male athlete while Patrick Aieto and Adekunle Adesoji are the two coaches.
It would be recalled that Nigeria won six gold, five silver and two bronze medals at the last Paralympic Games in London 2012. [myad]
