Nigeria’s number one female athlete, Blessing Okagbare has been hit with another setback at this year’ Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, as her longstanding African record in the women’s 200m was on Monday sent to the thrash bin of history.
So soon after she was thrown of the Games for failing a drugs test, despite winning her heat on Friday, the athlete from Sapele in Delta State will continue licking her wounds that her prestige in Africa has received yet another dent.
Megasportsarena.com reports that this is sequel to the heroics of Christine Mboma of Namibia, who was at her best en route to setting a new African record with a first ever sub 22-seconds performance by any African woman in the event.
While Okagbare was ruled out of the race due to the suspension handed her by Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) on Saturday, Mboma ran well to break the 22.04 seconds record Okagbare set in Abilene, Texas, USA in March 2018.
The 18-year-old Mboma ran a blistering 21.97 seconds to emerge runner-up in her semi-final heat but it was good enough to secure the second automatic ticket for Tuesday’s final, in which she will run alongside fellow-Namibian, Beatrice Masilingi and Ivory Coast’s Marie-Jose ta Lou.
That marks the end of another milestone for Okagbare, who broke fellow countrywoman, Mary Onyali’s 22.07 seconds record set 25 years ago at the Weltklasse meeting in Zürich, Switzerland and, though the 32-year-old sprinter came close to equaling her record in 2019, she finished one hundredth of a second outside the 22.04 seconds she ran a year earlier.
Okagbare had hoped to be the first African woman to break the 22 seconds barrier after her 10.79 seconds performance in the 100m in July 2013, but the latest African heroine to celebrate on Monday happened to be Mboma.
The Namibian heroine reached Tuesday’s final by breaking the under-20 world record for the second time in one day as she finished second in her semi-final of the women’s 200m behind Jamaica’s defending Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah.
Mboma became the first under-20 athlete to run under 21 seconds as she lowered her own record to 21.97 seconds, while Gambia’s Gina Bass’ time of 22.67 in fourth place in the same semi-final was not fast enough for her to progress as a fastest loser.
Moments earlier Namibia’s Beatrice Masilingi set her second personal best of the day as she finished second behind the former Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica in her semi-final, as both qualified automatically for the final.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast won the third semi-final to join the two Namibians in the final, but South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk will not be able to defend his Olympic title after he failed to reach the final of the men’s 400 metres after he finished fourth in his semi-final.
Van Niekerk has been struggling with injury since he set a world record as he won the 400m gold in Rio in 2016, but Botswana’s Isaac Makwala finished third in the same race just ahead of van Niekerk and his time of 44.49 seconds was enough for him to progress to Thursday’s final.
Makwala’s compatriot Leunog Scotch finished fifth in his semi-final and did not reach the final either, while South Africa’s Wanda Nel also failed to reach the final of the women’s 400m hurdles as she could only finish seventh her semi-final.
In the men’s hammer Egypt’s Mostafa Elgamel failed to progress to the final after a managed a throw of 72.76m, but Niger Republic’s Aminatou Seyni set a new national record in fifth in the last semi-final but neither was quick enough to progress.
