Celebrating Team Nigeria: After Setting a Personal Best Record with 10.93 Seconds, Nigerian Sprinter Blessing Okagbare Blazes Up to the 100m Semi-Finals Tonight!

As our Nigerian Athletes compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games, BN would be celebrating some of our stars who have worked hard, trained hard and are striving to achieve their very best. At the World Games, they have come to test themselves in healthy competition with athletes from across the world and strive for their personal best daily.

We identify with their courage and wish them the very best as they bring glory to Nigeria. Go for Victory, Team Nigeria!

Born on the 9th of October, 1988, Blessing Okagbare is a Nigerian long and triple jumper and short sprinter.

She is a University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP) graduate that is currently doing Nigeria proud at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The Sapele-born sprinter and jumper has been Nigeria’s most consistent athlete from the last edition of the Games in Beijing, China, in 2008 and was one of the few athletes that returned to Nigeria with a medal. She won a bronze medal in the women’s long jump event.

Yesterday, Blessing won her 100m heat thus securing her spot in the women’s 100m Olympics semi-finals holding tonight at the Olympic Stadium in London. She set a personal best record finishing the race in 10.93 seconds to win her first-round heat in London. She was the second fastest of the round, coming just behind America’s Carmelita Jeter’s 10.83 seconds.

If she qualifies, Blessing will feature in the 100m finals holding an hour after the semifinals races are completed.

The semi finals holds this evening at 7.35 pm

Blessing said she felt confident about the rest of the competition after her first outing, adding: “I have worked so hard to get this far and I am so happy that I am in the semis. I hope there is more to come tomorrow (today) but I am so happy with the way that I ran and I am just expecting a better race tomorrow (today),” she told Vanguard.

We are very proud of Blessing’s achievements so far and as she gets prepared for tonight’s run, we wish her the very best!

Biography: Wikipedia
Photo Credit: Getty Images | African Athletics

About Adeola Adeyemo

Adeola Adeyemo is a graduate of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from University of Lagos. However, her passion is writing and she worked as a reporter with NEXT Newspaper. She believes that anything can be written about; anything can be a story depending on the angle it is seen from and the writer's imagination. When she is not writing news or feature articles, she slips into her fantasies and creates interesting fiction pieces. She blogs at www.deolascope.blogspot.com