African Games 2023:Nigeria Wins First Handball Preliminary Match

Team Nigeria men’s handball team, the Golden Arrows, started their 13th African Games campaign  with a comfortable win against Togo in the preliminary rounds, thrashing their West African neighbors 38-19 on Wednesday.

Golden Arrows, who recently finished ninth at the African Handball Championship held earlier this year in Egypt, cruised past the lower-ranked Togo at the Borteyman Sports Complex, claiming all available points.

The Nigeria, alongside Egypt and two West African neighbors, Togo and Mali, have been drawn in Group 1 of the preliminary round.

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The Egyptians, who are currently Africa’s best men’s handball team, currently top the group due to boasting a better goal difference than Nigeria, having beaten Mali 49-16 earlier today (Wednesday).

Nigeria will face Mali in their next match on Friday, March 16, as they aim to book a place in the semi-finals, and Togo will take on Egypt.

Meanwhile, Team Nigeria amassed six more medals in the weightlifting event on Wednesday.

The duo of Desmond Akano and Adebayo Adeyemi won six medals, comprising three silver and three bronze.

Competing in the 96kg, Desmond Akano snatched 145kg and recorded 191kg in clean and jerk to have a total of 336kg to win a silver and two bronze medals.

Adeyemi was rewarded with two silver and bronze medals.

He snatched 151kg, and recorded 190kg in clean and jerk with a total of 241kg.

Their heroic performances scaled Nigeria’s weightlifting medal haul to 26 made up of 15 gold, five silver and six bronze medals.

Also, in the final of men’s 50m Freestyle swimming also on Wednesday, Abduljabar Adama who came very close to finishing on the podium narrowly missed out as he came in fourth with a time of 23.01s