An Olympic Gold medalist and current world record holder in the men’s 65kg weightlifting category passed away on November 18th after a brief illness.
Paul Kehinde, 33, also known as Olumi Agberin, was born in Epe, Lagos State, was a Nigerian Para-powerlifter champion and record-breaker. Kehinde was also a former world number one Para Powerlifter, and Commonwealth Games Champion.
His death comes just five weeks after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that Kehinde was suspended after an out-of-competition drug test found prohibited substances hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride in his system.
This was Kehinde’s second doping violation, according to the IPC. In response, they issued a 30-month ban for committing an anti-doping rule violation.
Kehinde had several wins under his belt. According to reporting from Punch:
- 2011 – World Championships Silver medalist
- 2014 – Commonwealth Games Gold medal
- 2015 – Malaysia World Cup Gold medalist
- 2015 – All Africa Games Gold medalist setting an African Record of 214 kg.
- 2016 – Rio Paralympics- Broke the World Record twice with lifts of 218 kg & 220 kg
- 2017 – Mexico World Championships Gold medal with another World Record lift of 220.5 kg.
- 2018 – World Para-Power lifting Championships, Fazza, Dubia. Gold medal with Record breaking lift of 221 kg.
- 2018 – Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Australia. Silver medalist in +65 kg Para-Power lifting
- 2018 – African Para-Power lifting Championships +65 kg Gold medalist
- 2018 – Nigerian National Sports Festival +65 kg Silver medalist.
- 2020 – World Para Powerlifting World Cup gold medalist – lifted 194kg
Olympic Gold medalist 🇳🇬Paul Kehinde is dead:
• World record-holder – 65kg para-powerlifting
• Rio2016 Paralympic Gold
• Commonwealth Gold + Silver
• World Cup Gold
• All African Games Gold
• World Championship Gold + Silver
• Broke world record x3️⃣
RIP Strongman☹️ pic.twitter.com/A50W1N1FFe
— FAST TRACK 🇳🇬 (@FastTrackNaija) November 19, 2021
