Nigeria’s leading female athlete, Blessing Okagbare has admitted that she is still relishing achieving a third sub-11 seconds finish of the year, which she enacted at the P-T-S athletics competition in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Wednesday evening.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Okagbare was all smiles after she dipped within 11 seconds for the third time this season, as the seven-time Nigeria female 100 metres champion ran 10.98 seconds to win the race.
In the process, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games bronze medalist in long jump smashed the 11.09 seconds meeting record set in June 1983 by Czech Republic icon, Jarmila Kratochvílová.
Okagbare’s impressive performance this season has given Nigeria hope of success from the Sapele, Delta State sprinter for the first time in six years, and probably become the first athlete from her country to make the Olympic Games’ podium in the 100m.
It is also the 21st time that Okagbare would run under 11 seconds in her career. It is a figure 19 times more than the number of times Mary Onyali, long considered Nigeria’s greatest sprinter, has ducked inside the 11-second mark.
She ran her first sub-11 seconds of the season at the USTAF invitational in Eugene, Oregon in April before scorching to a 10.90 seconds season’s best at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha, Qatar last week.
Okagbare, who is the Nigerian women’s 100 and 200m record holder, broke 11 seconds for the first time in her career at the Crystal Palace Aviva London Grand Prix in London on July 14, 2012, when she ran 10.99s.
She raced inside 11 seconds three more times that year, setting a new personal best on each occasion with the 10.92 performance in the semifinal of the event at the Olympics in London her lifetime best to close the year.
In 2013, Okagbare broke 11 seconds thrice with two of them in historic fashion. She started the season with a huge but wind-aided 10.75s in June at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, USA.
Hugely disappointed with the trail wind that denied her an obvious chance of breaking her countrywoman, Glory Alozie’s 10.90s African record, Okagbare followed it up with a 10.93s run at the Meeting Areva, in Paris, in July.
Later that month, she smashed the African record twice in one evening, first storming to a 10.86s finish in heat two of the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games at the Olympic stadium in London. That was the first time an African would legally break 10.90s in the event.
Less than 90 minutes later, she proved her 10.75s wind-aided run in Eugene, Oregon was a sign of what is to come as she smashed a barrier she had set earlier that evening by stopping the clock at 10.79s. It was the fastest time ever returned by an African in the event at the time.
In 2015, Okagbare broke 11 seconds six times, her most in a single season, and made it to the 100m final at the World Athletics Championship in Beijing, China. Incidentally, it was the last time the Nigerian would run in the final of any global sprint event.
Okagbare took to social media to celebrate her latest feat, as she gave thanks to divine support that helped her make the mark and posted: “Thank God for another healthy race/win.”
