Nigeria’s sprint queen, Blessing Okagbare yesterday won the women 200m gold at the on-going Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. She clocked 20.25 seconds to confirm forecasts that the sprints medals were hers for the taking.
She had earlier on Monday won the gold in the women 100m with 10.85 seconds, setting games record while beating tested Jamaican runners Veronica Campbell Brow and Kerron Stewart. And yesterday, Okagbare faced a British challenge in the field and she easily blew the other women away.
She was too strong for the English girls J. Williams and B. Williams who won silver and bronze at 22.50 and 22.58 respectively. She made history as the 11 woman to win the Commonwealth Games sprints double. And now she is beckoning more history as the first Nigerian woman to win three gold medals in the Commonwealth Games if the Nigerian female relay team clinches the 4x100m gold.
Also yesterday young and up and coming Ese Brume made up for the disappointment of missing the gold at the world junior championships in Eugene, Oregon USA, when she won gold in the women’s long jump with a 6.56m. England’s Jazmin Sawyers was second and Christabel Nettey from Canada was third. Brume only arrived Scotland three days ago.
Blessing Okagbare decided to drop the Long Jump especially after taking a look at the programme that saw the final of the Long Jump close to the final of 200m. She had told all that Brume would make good representation for Nigeria.
And the young Delta athlete did that gracefully and dedicated her gold to Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan who has been solidly behind the athletes, sponsoring their programmes and approving training grants for them.
“This feels good and I thank God for this gold. I thank our Governor and I dedicate this to him and our country,” she said.
Head of sports Amaju Pinnick had said last year that Brume would be the athlete to step into the shoes of Blessing Okagbare.
“Blessing is still strong competing at top level and Brume is already stepping into her shoes. It is great for them, for Delta and Nigeria in general,” said Amuju from Scotland.
