Born October 9, 1988, Blessing Okagbare, the latest Nigerian pride, is a bundle of athletics (being a sprtinter, long and triple jumper). At 24, she is already an Olympic and World medalist in the long jump, World medallist in the 200m, and the African record holder in the 100m!
In May 2007, at the All-Africa Games trials in Lagos, she
established a Nigerian record of 14.13 metres in the triple jump, won the
silver medal in the long jump and finished fourth in the triple jump. In the
latter competition, her Nigerian record was beaten by Chinonye Ohadugha , who
jumped 14.11 metres.
When Okagbare was 19 years old, she won a bronze medal in
the women’s long jump event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
She scored a 100 metres/long jump double at the NCAA Women’s
Outdoor Track and Field Championship for University of Texas at El Paso,
completing an unrivalled collegiate streak that year. She won the Nigerian 100m
title in 2010, running a time of 11.04 seconds, and stated that she was opting
out of the long jump in order to conserve energy, set her focus on and fully
prepare herself for the then impending African championships.
At the championships in 2010, she won gold in the long jump
again with a distance of 6.62m while her compatriot Comfort Onyali took silver.
Okagbare also won gold in the 100m distance with a run of 11.03s flat, while
Gabon’s Ruddy Zang Milama and compatriot Oludamola Osayomi won silver and
bronze with runs of 11.15s and 11.22s respectively. She won her third gold at
the end of the championship as part of the Nigerian 4x100m women’s relay team.
The team of Okagbare, Osayomi, Lauretta Okoh and Agnes Osazuwa set a new games
record with a run of 43.43s, more than a full second ahead of the
silver-winning Cameroonian quartet.
Okagbare continued to build on her earlier endeavours by
establishing herself as a 100m sprinter, and at the 2011 World Championships in
Daegu, Okagbare placed fifth in the 100m final with a run of 11.12s.
However, she did not make it to the final of the long jump
as her best jump of 6.36m was not good enough to get her out of her qualifying
group. She concluded her 2011 season by winning three medals at the All Africa
Games in Maputo, Mozambique. She won silver in the 100m behind compatriot
Oludamola Osayomi with a run of 11.01s and gold in the long jump with a stretch
of 6.50m. She was part of the Nigerian quartet that won gold in the 4x100m with
a time of 43.34.
2012 was a busy year for Okagbare. That year, she did a jump
of 6.97m in the long jump in Calabar during the Nigerian championship. She also
won new continental medals at the 2012 African Championships in Porto Novo. In
the 100m, she was beaten to silver by Gabonese Ruddy Zang Milama while in the
long jump she clinched the gold with a jump stretching 6.96m.
In London 2012, Okagbare made her second Olympic appearance.
Going into the Olympics, she had done a number of fast 100m sprints; by which
Nigeria and Africa had placed much anticipation and hope on her for more medals. However, the 2012 Olympics
outing did not turn out as successful for her as that of the 2008 Olympics.
Though, she established a new personal best of 10.92s in the 100m semi-final
but placed eighth in the final with a run of 11.01s.
2013 has, so far, proved to be a year of breakthrough for
her. In April 2013, in Walnut, California, Okagbare, the Nigerian blessing of
the moment, had set a personal record in the 200 meters with a time of 22.31s
(+1.3 m/s wind). In July, she improved her personal best in the long jump with
successive jumps of 6.98m (+1.1 m / s) at the Athletissima meet in Lausanne,
and 7.00 m (no wind) during the Monaco Herculis meet. On July 27, 2013, at the
London Anniversary Games, Okagbare set a new African record of 10.79s in her
100m race. She won the final about an hour later, setting a new African record
of 10.79, in a race where she beat reigning 100m Olympic gold medalist
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. Okagbare’s record eclipsed the existing record by
compatriot Glory Alozie of 10.90 seconds which had stood since 1998.
And now, Nigerians are all smiles as the sport-blessed Okagbare
has made our great nation proud again at the 2013 World Championships in
Moscow, winning the silver medal in the long jump (her jump of 6.99m put her in
second place behind Brittney Reese of the United States by only 2 cm) and also
placed third in the Women’s 200m race won by Jamaica’s 100m champion Shelly-Ann
Fraser-Pryce.
Again, it is noteworthy that Blessing Okagbare has been
largely self-made to achieve the above-mentioned feat without actually enjoying
the necessary adequate financial, medical, psychological backup of the federal
government. This is one big noise all sports-loving Nigerians from all walks of
life have been making. Our youths are burning themselves out on daily basis in
the frantic efforts to gloriously showcase their talents, not only in sports,
but also in diverse other ways by which, should the government pay prompt and
adequate attention to them and go ahead enabling them with the wherewithal to
excel in training and real competitions, then we can always expect our nation to
shine at international tourneys.
Yes, we can and truly we shall, given the bounties of
talents with which Nigerian youths are endowed. After all, the federal
government cannot, in all sincerity, claim that we don’t have the resources to
pull to enhance our sustained glory in international sports of various
categories.
Should this optimism be threatened, then we may have to
consider sizable cuts in unjustifiable furniture allowances of senators and
House of Reps members, including those of state assembly members. By the way,
what do these legislators do with the mouth-watering amount of money in the
name of constituency development allowances which are ever hardly deployed to
designated use in any of our vast communities in deplorable conditions? Could
we please yank some chunk off for the benefit of sports.
And may the
government of the day not forget to give Blessing Okagbare and colleagues the
necessary and timely heroic welcome after the glorious feat at Moscow events.
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
*With Bayo Banjo
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