Nigeria’s reigning 100m and 200m Record holder, Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor would be hoping to get her first victory at the seventh time of asking when she files out alongside notable sprinters on Friday as the IAAF Diamond League is set to take off at the Hamad Bin Suhaim Stadium in Doha, Qatar.
In what is a blue-chip field, Okagbare-Ighoteguonor who will be competing in her third 100m race in Doha, will test her mettle against Jamaica’s Rio 2016 Olympic double GOLD medallist, Elaine Thompson, and Cote d’ Ivoire’s duo of Marie Jose Ta Lou and Murielle Ahoure.
Also listed for the race are Dutch woman Dafne Schippers, who is the 2015 and 2017 World Champion over the 200m, as well as South Africa’s National Record (NR) Holder over the distance, Carina Horn.
Okagbare-Ighoteguonor has been in imperious form so far this season as she had earlier shattered the women’s 200m African Record (AR) to set the new time at 22.04s while competing at the 2018 Wes Kittley Invitational in Abilene, Texas. She also ran a wind-aided time of 10.72s (+2.7) at the 91st Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, all coming within a week.
The Gold Coast 2018 relay sprint Bronze medallist accumulated 22 points to place overall third in the 100m of the Diamond League in 2017.
