REIGNING double Commonwealth Games sprint queen Blessing
Okagbare will need to run faster than her 22.23 seconds personal best to stand
a chance of making the 200m final when the semi-final is run at 2am on Wednesday
August 17,2016.
The seven-time Nigerian 100m queen came in first (22.71s)
in her first round heat on Monday but faces another heartbreak in the
semi-final after she was drawn in the same heat as reigning world champion
Dafne Schippers of Holland and Jamaica's Elaine Thompson who came second behind
Schippers in Beijing at the IAAF Worlds last year and only early Sunday morning
ran 10.71 seconds to win the 100m gold at the on-going Olympic in Rio De
Janeiro,Brazil.
Also drawn in Okagbare's first semi-final heat are USA's
Deajah Stevens who holds a personal
season's best of 22.25 seconds and Britain's Dina Asher-Smith who incidentally
came second (22.77s) behind Okagbare in the first round heat.
The Nigerian will be fighting for either the two
automatic slots on offer for the final which Schippers and Thompson who both
ducked inside 22 seconds to make the podium in Beijing last year are favoured
to get or the two fastest losers' spots which is open to athletes in all the
three semi-final heats.
In the other semi-final heats,Cote D'Ivoire duo of Muriel
Ahoure and Marie-Jose Talou will also strive to make the final.
Ahoure will be running in the third semi-final while
Talou,who came fourth in the 100m final early Sunday morning and set a 22.31
seconds personal best in the first round heat Monday afternoon will be running
in the second semi-final.
Okagbare,it would be recalled failed to qualify for the
100m semi-finals on Saturday and has not ran inside 11 seconds so far this
year.
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