Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria competes in the women's long jump athletics final in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 22, 2008.
The timing, her personal best, showed that she is ready to continue from where she left off in the just ended indoor season. Okagbare had last July at the 20th Nigeria/NNPC/ExxonMobil track and field championships set a personal best of 11.16 to outrun defending champion, Damola Osayomi and claim her first national title in any sprint event.
The incredible performance gave her a second title in the colours of University of Texas in El Paso at the 83rd Annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. The Nigerian had leapt to a world's best mark of 6.88 metres to claim the long jump title and set a new meet and stadium record in the long jump on Friday.
The General Studies major at UTEP also anchored the school's 400 metres relay team comprising two other Nigerians, Gladys Nwaubani and Endurance Abinuwa, to a time of 44.54, which ranks fifth in the national descending order list this year.
A week ago, the Beijing Olympics long jump bronze medallist also set a new personal best of 23.30 in the 200 metres to put her in a strong position to take Nigeria back to the winner's podium at the next Commonwealth Games in India.
Four years ago, Nigeria failed to win any of the titles in track and field at the Melbourne, Australia Games, with both Olusoji Fasuba and Otonye Iworima winning silver medals in the 100 metres and triple jump respectively.
PHOTO:Tatyana Lebedeva (silver), Maurren Maggi (gold) and Blessing Okagbare (bronze) show off their medals on the Beijing victory stand.
Comments