An African record was set in the 100m finals over the weekend by Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria who was competing at the IAAF flagship championships in London. London was in the anniversary sports celebration of the Olympic Games which she hosted and a number of world class athletes particularly those belonging to the commonwealth bent and the Caribbean.
Blessing hit great form, raising hopes that the 14th World IAAF meet in Moscow could well experience a show down at the Women’s 100m dash if this is considered a dress rehearsal.
Blessing had cancelled the African sprint record in the semi-finals when she ran the race in a time of 10.86secs. This made her the fastest African woman so far. But the bigger surpriase was to show when in the finals, she cancelled her own African record to set another by a shave of 7 seconds.
Though she is behind in points to Jamaica’s reigning Olympic champion, Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce who has run a world leading time of 10.77secs, she had still written an extra line in the history pages by becoming the second African woman, after police woman – Gloria Alozie to win an individual medal at the IAAF flagship championship after 13 years.
Barbara Pierre of the USA came in behind Okagbare with a time of 10.85secs.
On the rating of the IAAF Diamond League points, Blessing has a maximum of 10 points which is two less than that of Fraser-Pryce.
The Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi while congratulating Okagbare said ‘she has consistently shown by her performances that she has got what it takes to be a world champion. It is an impressive performance by any standard, breaking the Africa record two times within a short period. It shows that she is world-class and ranks among the best athletes in the world’.
“I have no doubt that if she maintains her current form and peaks at the right time she will win the women’s 100m at the World Championship in Russia”.
In his capacity as the Technical Director of AFN, Navy Commodore Omatseye Nesiama was reported to have noted that ‘a lot of people have complained that Okagbare might get burnt out before the World Championship because of her participation in many races. For us at the AFN, we don’t see it from that angle’.
“People should know that Okagbare is taking part in three different events (100m, long jump and the 200m). For her to be in good shape and compete for medals in all the events in Moscow, she has to give it a trial in the various Diamond Leagues.
“As you can see, Okagbare is very mindful of what she is doing going by events she has competed in so far in the Diamond League. If she competes in the 100m in one event, she registers for either the long jump or 200m in another Diamond League. It is good for her. Okagbare knows she has a duty to perform for Team Nigeria in Moscow. She normally informs us of what she intends to do at any particular competition and we have to give her the approval.”
