Exactly a week after she stormed to a 200m African Record (AR), Blessing Okagbare narrowly missed out on making it two Records in a week after winning the women’s 100m at the 91st Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays with at time of 10.72s (+2.7).
If not for the excessive wind reading today Okagbare would have reclaimed her 100m AR from Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure, who ran 10.78s in 2016 narrowly edging her previous mark by just 0.01s. What a massive Personal Best (PB) and also a World Lead (WL) it would have been.
While we were still reveberating from her feat last week at the 2018 Wes Kittley Invitational in Abilene, where she surpassed Mary Onyali’s long standing 200m record, Okagbare has further shown that she isn’t resting on her oars, raising the bar again this week and underlining the fact that she’s still a major contender in global sprinting.
Okagbare was a tough match for opponents, comfortably beating Mikiah Brisco who was 2nd in 10.99s, with another Nigerian athlete, Jennifer Madu finishing 3rd with a time of 11.47s. Another Nigerian athlete, Stephanie Kalu was billed to compete in the race, but she Did Not Start (DNS)
Despite the conditions that she ran in, Okagbare’s time sees her clocking the fastest ever time by a woman in any conditions this early in a season.
This year Okagbare is back with a bang, as she would have now been in possession of both the 100m and 200m records, which would have seen her become the first African athlete to have both records at the same time.
However, she will take solace in the fact that in just her first two races of the season she’s already laying down the marker for other competitiors to take notice of. If she continues with this form into the season, sooner rather later Okagbare could reclaim that 100m record from Ahoure.
By the grace of God, she will run 10.65s this season