Blessing Okagbare places 2nd in Rabat

REIGNING Commonwealth Games double
sprint champion, Blessing Okagbare
Ighoteguonor on Sunday at the Prince Moulay
Abdellah stadium in Rabat, Morocco
overcame a slow start to place second in the
100m event at the first ever IAAF Diamond
League meeting on on African soil.
The Nigerian ran a personal season’s best of
11.11 seconds into a -1.3 meteres per second
(mps) headwind to come second behind
Jamaica’s new sprint sensation, Elaine Thomp­
son who ran 11.02 seconds, also a personal
season’s best.
Okagbare’s time is the third fastest by an
African woman in the event so far this year
after the Ivorian duo of Murielle Ahoure and
reigning All Africa Games fastest woman
Marie-Josee Ta Lou who ran 11.02 seconds
and 11.05 seconds respectively at the opening
leg of the money-spinning IAAF Diamond
League meeting in Doha,Qatar on May 6 this
year.
Meanwhile Aminat Olowora, a former Lagos
State long distance running sensation had set
a new national record in the women’s 5000m
event.
Olowoora, now in the USA ran 15:49.75 sec­
onds at the Hoka One One Distance Classic at
Eagle Rock in Los Angeles,USA. The time is
the first sub-16 minutes run by any Nigerian
woman ever.
She had also became the second Nigeria
woman to break a national record this year
after Chinwe Okoro who threw a distance of
61.58m at the Ohio Cherry Blossom
Invitational in Athens, USA to rewrite the
Nigerian discus throw record.