Blessing Okagbare landing in the long jump pit
Doha, Qatar has always been a rich hunting ground for Nigerian athletes.
Blessing Okagbare’s 7.14m jump at the weekend that earned her a silver medal of
the women’s Long Jump event of the first leg of the 2013 IAAF Diamond League
was no exception. It was good enough to earn her a temporary 2013 world lead
before American Britney Reese’s 7.25m snatched the gold for the reigning
Olympic champion.
It was sheer hard luck for the Sapele-born Okagbare to miss the African
record because of the +2.2m per second wind that made her efforts unacceptable.
It was good enough to erase the 7.12m that gave Chioma Ajunwa the Olympic gold
medal at the Atlanta Games in 1996.
Seven years ago in Doha, former Nigerian sprint king, Olusoji Fasuba,
raced to a new African 100m record of 9.85secs to push Frankie Fredericks’
9.86secs into the archive. Even if Fasuba has dumped athletics for a career in
the Royal British Navy, his record still stands to date as the fastest by any
African.
Even if Okagbare missed the African record, she no doubt has entered
the club of seven metres jumpers and can only be looking forward to improving
before the World Championships in Russia in August.
“I am really excited by Blessing’s feat here in Doha. It is true that
the wind was above the acceptable level but that did not mean that we should
not appreciate her effort. Don’t forget that this is the first leg of the
Diamond League and anything can still happen before our trials in Calabar later
in the year,” enthused Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) President, Chief
Solomon Ogba, who was one of the few Nigerians that cheered the Delta girl in
Qatar.
Ogba was particularly thrilled because before that 7.14m jump, Okagbare
had bettered her personal best of 6.97m she clocked at the last Nigeria Open
Championships in Calabar.
“Despite the disappointment of the last Olympic Games in London, I have
never doubted the capacity of Blessing to better the 6.97m. I knew she is
capable of making the 7m mark. She did that three times in Doha here with
relative ease. I just pray she continues at the pace she has started the outdoor
season without any injury,” stressed Ogba on telephone for Doha at the weekend.
IAAF Instructor, Rotimi Obajimi, also joined in applauding Okagbare for
her achievement for improving on her previous record in 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“I had believed that she will concentrate on long jump and ignore
sprints, but why she did not, I do not understand.
“Because I believe she would have passed the record a long time ago.
“It is a good development that she now knows her strong point, whether
wind assisted or not it is a good result,” he said.
Okagbare’s feat was equally acknowledged by Reese who believes that the
World Championships in Russia will not be a stroll in the park for whoever will
pick the gold medal.
She acknowledged that rivals such as the Russian jumpers,
Okagbare and fellow American, the London 2012 Olympic Games bronze medallist
Janay Deloach Soukup - who also took good advantage of the wind to finish third
behind the Nigerian jumper with a fifth round effort of 7.08m.
It is Reese’s dream of becoming the first woman to win a hat trick of
gold medals in the event, with herself and three other women having won twice.
Another of her 2013 goal is, “to break the US record.”
Reese will need to find another 25cm to better the mark of 7.49m set by Jackie Joyner-Kersee in New York 19 years ago, although just another four centimetres would take her past the World record of 7.52m set in 1988 by Russia’s Galina Chistyakova.
“Had a great start to my year as I jumped 7.25 here in Doha,” the
American wrote on her Facebook page Sunday.
“That is a new personal best for me and I am beyond excited about the rest of the year.”
“That is a new personal best for me and I am beyond excited about the rest of the year.”
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