Meet the SportsWOMAN- BLESSING OKAGBARE

Nigeria's Golden Girl

SPORT: TRACK AND FIELD

ROLE: SPRINTER, LONG JUMP 

 NATIONALITY: NIGERIAN 

 

Blessing Okagbare was born on the 10th of September 1988 in Sapele, Delta State.

As a teenager, she started off as a footballer in High School before building more interest in track and field. 

She tried her hands at various events such as triple jump, high jump, long jump in 2004, winning medals in all three events in the National Sports Festival of the same year. 

Her first international showing was in the 2006 World junior Championships in Beijing, China. However, it was in 2008 she won her first international medal at the Beijing Olympics , carting home the bronze medal in the long jump category. 

She started sprinting in 2009 and in the 2010 African Championship, she won Gold in the 100m event. Subsequently, she ran at the 2011 Games in Daegu but failed to reach the finals.  

 

Her international breakthrough in sprint came in 2012 where she set a new African record of 10.79 s and won the 100 m race at the London Anniversary Games. Okagbare also won the silver medal in the long jump at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. 

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, she won a gold medal in the 100m with a time of 10.85, breaking the games record of 10.91s  set by Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie in 2002. Okagbare also won the gold medal in the 200m, with a time of 22.25 seconds. 

The 2015 season has been immense for the 5 ft 11 star who won the IAAF Diamond league in Shanghai blitzing past Olympic Gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell Brown. She also took home gold in the Jamaican Invitational and the IAAF World Championships in the Bahamas in the relay event. 

The Delta born beauty has now run inside 11 seconds, a record 12 times more than Mary Onyali-Omagbemi who ran 10.97 (1993) and 10.99 (2000) and Chioma Ajunwa, the first Nigerian to break 11 seconds in the event and the second fastest Nigerian ever with the 10.84 seconds she ran in 1992. 

In November 2014, she married ex Nigerian Football International, Igho Otegheri in her hometown in Sapele. 

Blessing Okagbare was one of the sports personalities recently rewarded by President Goodluck Jonathan for their stewardship and contribution to sports development in Nigeria. 

However, she recently criticized the AFN for patronizing more non-Nigerian nationals in representing the country than developing the system within stating  

''Enough is enough with the short cuts to success because our nation and athletes are so better than this''. 

She's currently ranked 4th by the International Association of Athletics Federations following her excellent performances since the athletics season began this year.