Riluwan Idris secured gold in the men’s para-powerlifting event on Friday night, helping Nigeria claim its sixth medal at the ongoing 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

The 23-year-old emerged champion ahead of England’s Matthew Harding and Malaysia’s Nicodemus Manggoi Moses, who settled for silver and bronze respectively.

Idris produced a dominant performance, lifting 200kg on his opening attempt before raising 208kg on his second lift to move clear of the field. He was the only athlete in the competition to successfully lift more than 200kg and finished with 132.8 points to secure his first Commonwealth Games gold medal.

The Nigerian para-powerlifter came close to setting a new Commonwealth Games record but narrowly missed his third attempt at 212kg, which would have surpassed the existing mark.

His victory makes him Nigeria’s first male athlete to win gold at the Glasgow Games. The triumph also adds to the country’s growing success in para-powerlifting following earlier gold-medal performances by Folashade Oluwafemiayo and Esther Nworgu.

With Idris’ success, Nigeria has now won three of the four gold medals available in the para-powerlifting programme, underlining its dominance in the sport.

The achievement represents an improvement on the country’s performance at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, where Nigeria won two gold medals in para-powerlifting.

Nigeria’s overall medal haul now stands at six, consisting of three gold and three silver medals. The total is already one better than the five medals recorded at the 2022 edition of the Games.

At the end of Day One, Nigeria occupied second place on the medals table behind Australia, which leads the standings with six gold medals and 13 medals overall.