Nigeria’s Queen of the tracks Blessing Okagbare, cruised to an easy second place finish in her opening 100 meters heat and now faces a battle to qualify for the final later this evening.
The double Commonwealth games champion is one of the heavyweights in her semi-final heat 3 alongside USA’s English Gardner who won her heat and has a season’s best time of 10. 74 secs., Desiree Henry and Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson.
But Okagbare who qualified for the semis with a time of 11.16 seconds behind USA’s Tori Bowie, is expected to spring a surprise during the race scheduled for 9. 14pm here in Rio ( 1.14 am Nig).
With Gloria Asunmnu and Jennifer Madu crashing out after recording poor times in their respective races, any hope of getting a medal in the event now rests on the shoulders of the Nigerian champion.
Asunmu and Madu both recorded poor times and came fifth respectively in their qualifying heats.
Blessing Okagbare although a fantastic athlete has always had issues with a slow start and payed dearly for it at the London 2012 Olympics.Hopefully, that doesn’t work against her this time around.
Wishing her all the best, go team Nigeria go!
Go girl! Go #TeamNigeria