Team Nigeria’s medal hunt shifts to Weightlifting... Ekpo Felix ready for babbles

Nigeria’s hunt for medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games intensifies today at the Excel Centre with Ekpo Felix a.k.a Bullet ready to dazzle the all-cheering English fans in his Snatch and Clean and Jerk events in Weightlifting today.

Ekpo, a trojan in the 77kg would be fighting off opposition of lifters from Kazerstan, Samoa, Spain and Great Britain with the events scheduled to start by 10 a.m. Coach Patrick Bassey was upbeat after training yesterday.

“He is good and ready to go. He is a focused lifter who is no stranger to higher events with mammoth crowd’’, the coach said.

The snatch involves lifting the weight above the head in one movement; the clean & jerk allows the weightlifter to raise the weight above the head in two movements.

Each lifter is allowed three attempts at the snatch and three attempts at the clean and jerk, with their best lift in each discipline counting towards their total.

When a tie occurs, the athlete with the lower bodyweight is declared the winner. There are 15 medal events in total.