London 2012: Ekpo Lifts Team Nigeria in Weightlifting

Weightlifter, Felix Ekpo lifted the gloom surrounding Team Nigeria in the wake of the woeful performances of her athletes at London 2012, with a stunning performance in the 77kg of his event this morning.

Competing in the B category of the weightlifting competition, the 31-year-old lifted a combined total of 331kg to finish second behind Perez Mata of Spain.

In fact had the native of Calabar done better in the clean and jerk (C&J) he could have topped the group after out lifting every body in the snatch with his 151kg performance.

However, Mata, who placed second behind the Nigerian by one kilograms in the snatch, more than made up for it in the C&J with his 188kg lift, which was eight kilograms better than Ekpo's.

In the end the Spaniard's combined total lift of 188 was just seven better than the Nigerian's.

Kazakhstan's Kirill Pavlov placed third with a total lift of 322kg.

However, Ekpo will have to wait until the A group begin their competition later this evening to know if his performance is good enough to land him a medal.

The A group is made up of some of the world's top lifters from notable weightlifting countries like China and South Korea.

But until then Team Nigeria can still celebrate Ekpo's performance, especially after her athletes in table tennis and boxing all failed to do well.