Nigeria’s foremost female athlete, Blessing Okagbare could only finish behind four runners and end up in fifth position, after finishing in a time of 11.57s at the Diamond League race in Gateshead, England, megasportsarena.com reports.
Okagbare appeared troubled by driving rain in the inclement north-east of England, as the Wanda Diamond League season-opener produced spills and surprises to whet the appetite for the delayed 2020 Olympics.
On an evening when Mondo Duplantis sampled the rare taste of pole vault defeat, Mariya Lasitskene finished out of the top three in the women’s high jump, and the innovate field event Okagbare fell short of her target of outrunning Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith.
At the pre-meeting press conference on Saturday, the world 200m champion told the world she was “much, much stronger,” having taken advantage of lockdown to put in some serious graft.
That new-found strength was clear for the 2,000 home crowd to see as the 25-year-old Briton powered out of the blocks in the loaded 100m final and surged clear of the hitherto-burgeoning US speed queen Sha’Carri Richardson.
Richardson arrived in Gateshead on the back of a trio of early-season sub-10.80 clocking back home but the 21-year-old could do nothing to stop Asher-Smith.
The winning time, 11.35, was irrelevant, with the rain hammering down and, more pertinently, the trackside wind gauge reading -3.1m/s.
The gap, 0.09, was more telling, with Richardson the runner up in 11.44, Ivory Coast’s world bronze medalist Marie-Josee Ta Lou third in 11.48 and Jamaica’s three-time world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce fourth in 11.51.
It was Richardson’s first 100m defeat since the US Championships in 2019 and Asher-Smith, who won her heat in 11.45 into an even stronger headwind (-4.4m/s), was talking up the significance of her victory, with 79 days still to go before the women’s 100m final in Tokyo, Japan.
Asher-Smith stormed to a superb 100m victory over America’s Richardson in 11.35 seconds, 0.11 seconds clear of the in-form fastest woman this year, but Okagbare settled for fifth and now turns her attention on the next race this Friday in Doha, Qatar.
Asher-Smith hardly raced in 2020, restricting herself to three low-key outings on her home track in Bromley. Instead the 25-year-old concentrated on building her strength and technique, with recent training sessions featuring 300 reps of abdominal strengthening exercises.
That extra power was clear as she held off Richardson, who has dipped under 10.80 three times already this season, in the final 20m.
Asher-Smith, who won 100m silver as well as the 200m title at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, played down any psychological impact the result could have on her Olympic rivals. Both she and 21-year-old Richardson intend to run the 100m-200m double in Tokyo.
She retorted: “I think all in all today was more of an experience. The only thing that can indicate Tokyo is the Olympic final itself.
“I feel really good. Conditions were far from ideal for sprinting but the most important thing is to come away with a good result and a win and I was very happy to do that.”
