By Akeem Lawal
NIGERIA queen of the track, Blessing Okagbare is in cloud nine following her blistering performance at the American track league III, where she ran two personal bests in both the 60m and 200m at the event held at the Randal Tyson Indoor Centre in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA on Sunday.
Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com reports that the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist ran a personal best of 7.10 seconds to win the women’s 60 meters race, the 2nd fastest time in the world this year, ahead of Jamaica’s Christiana Williams (7.14) in a repeat of the first leg of the meeting at the same arena two weeks ago.
With her performance at the American Track League, she also became the seventh-fastest Nigerian woman after Gloria Asunmu’s 7.07 seconds ran in 2012.
After conquering the 60m, the Beijing 2008 long jump silver medallist also took to the 200m track to earn another lifetime best, a 23.01 seconds finish to win her heat ahead of Shawnti Jackson and Ashley Henderson who ran 23.23 and 23.33 seconds respectively.
Okagbare’s time is the second fastest time ever run by a Nigerian woman over the distance behind Reginna George whose 23.00 seconds performance on the same track in Fayetteville in 2013 remains the Nigerian record in the event.
The 32-year-old however took to social media to express her feelings on the latest feat.
“I won the 60M @americantrack yesterday and also won my heat in the 200M. Both came with a new personal best. I am excited #Fam”, she wrote alongside a short video of her triumph uploaded on her Instagram page on Monday.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Divine Oduduru ran 6.70 seconds to finish fifth in the first heat, while his compatriot, Charles Okezie was sixth (6.83) in the second heat in the men’s 60m. USA’s Ronnie Baker ran 6.53 seconds to win the final ahead of compatriot and world leader Trayvon Bromell (6.58).
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