\n<\/p>\n
Hosts: <\/strong>Birmingham <\/span>Dates:<\/strong> 28 July to 8 August<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n| Coverage:<\/strong> Watch live on BBC TV with extra streams on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, BBC Sport website and BBC Sport mobile app; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra; live text and clips online.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | Nigeria’s Rafiatu Folashade Lawal says her parents will be proud of her latest success after claiming a Commonwealth Games gold medal in the women’s 59kg weightlifting.<\/span><\/p>\n “They are always proud of me, but I think my parents will be prouder than before,” Lawal told BBC Sport.<\/span><\/p>\n “This Commonwealth gold means a lot to me, and I’m really excited about it because I didn’t expect it, but God did it for me.”<\/span><\/p>\n Lawal has already conquered the continent by picking 59kg gold at the 2019 African Games and the 2021 African Weightlifting Championships.<\/span><\/p>\n A gold medallist at the 2021 Commonwealth Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she admitted her Commonwealth record was unexpected on the way to winning Nigeria’s third gold in Birmingham.<\/span><\/p>\n “I’m really happy because I didn’t even know I broke the record. I was only focussed on winning the gold medal,” she added.<\/span><\/p>\n “Hearing the fans [Nigerians in the crowd] really helped. Although it’s not the first time I will be facing a huge crowd, but the support really calmed my nerves.”<\/span><\/p>\n Lawal’s success in Birmingham is a positive for Africa’s most populous nation, but Nigeria’s powerlifting successes at the Commonwealth Games has often been blighted by doping violations.<\/span><\/p>\n The Nigerian Weightlifting Federation was suspended for repeated doping violations by the International Weightlifting Federation in 2001 and banned from competing in the following year’s Manchester Games.<\/span><\/p>\n Back in 2014, 16-year-old weightlifter Chika Amalaha was <\/span>stripped of her gold medal<\/span><\/a> after failing a drugs test.<\/span><\/p>\n |