New Kid on the Track

Beijing Olympics Long Jump bronze medallist, Blessing Okagbare is gradually becoming the benchmark for track and field in Nigeria following her inspiring showing in this year’s American collegiate indoor championships. In an indoor season with little or nothing to show, the Delta born athlete raced into record books where she won two gold medals for her University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) at the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Complex in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Okagbare won the 60m gold at the American collegiate premier championships to add to the long jump gold she had earlier won in a record breaking fashion on the opening day of the championships.

Shaking off a slow start, she rallied from a hole into her second gold medal of the championships. She and Gabby Mayo of Texas A&M were both timed in 7.18 seconds, but Okagbare took the photo finish and with it staked her claim as one of the all-time greatest athletes in UTEP history in any sport.

It is amazing that this 21-year-old athlete, who until the National Sports Festival in Abeokuta in 2006 was a rookie jumper, has become the most sought after Nigerian runner. Before Okagbare shot into prominence, there had been Damola Osayomi whom most athletics aficionados had hoped would easily step into Mary Onyali Omagbemi’s big shoes. Of course, Osayomi showed signs of inheriting Onyali’s throne with her blazing races, which earned her two solid gold medals in the sprint events of the 2007 All Africa Games in Algier. But her subsequent performances both locally and at the global levels were too dismal to crown her the worthy successor of Onyali. And then Okagbare steps in.

In Beijing, all hopes of Nigeria getting medal of any colour were getting hopeless when from nowhere, Okagbare who was attending her first big stage global track and field competition got that ‘golden’ bronze for Nigeria from the jump pit. Just like Chioma Ajunwa who was not in the reckoning on those to make it to the podium at the 1996 Atlanta Long Jump event, Okagbare dug deep to achieve that feat. And since then, this Sapele girl has never looked back.

Of course, having wetted the appetite of her compatriots in readiness of more quality performances, the UTEP General Studies sophomore had to battle avoidable hamstring injury she picked up on the way to the World Championships in Berlin last year. Her performance at the Nigerian Trials in Abuja was inspiring, winning her specialties, the 100m and the long jump. But fate was to play a trick on her in the pre Berlin camp when she sustained ankle injuries that effectively shut her out of the Berlin spectacle that Usain Bolt dominated like no other athlete has ever done.

And so, having to endure the pains of sitting out of the World Championships and return to America to undergo treatment for injuries sustained in Abuja, it was indeed gratifying to note that the Nigerian track and field hope had return to where she stopped to continue her race to stardom.

President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria Chief Solomon Ogba who is instrumental to what Okagbare is today was full of joy for the achievement of the UTEP scholar in the American NCAA.

“I am happy that my gamble has paid off for Blessing (Okagbare). Having won two gold in American NCAA Indoor for her university is an indication that all is not lost for track and field in the country. I was tempted to want to draft her to our (Nigeria) team to the World Indoor in Doha, but on a second note opted to allow her race for her university. She has raced into UTEP history with the two gold she won in the 100m and the long jump. These are performances that would have also earned her and Nigeria gold medals at the World Indoor in Doha. What I think is left now is for us as a federation to she how we can help her build on these achievements as we look forward to the Commonwealth Games this year and the 2012 Olympics in London,” observed the former Delta State sports commissioner.

But to Okagbare’s coach at UTEP, Bob Kitchens, the Nigerian girl is worth more than what has been credited to her. He believes that when Okagbare finally masters the art of getting out of the block at the blast of the starter’s gun, a potential Olympic gold medallist was in the making. “She got off to a terrible start,” said coach Kitchens.” She was behind. At the finish she dipped her shoulder (and won). All the good ones know how to win. The close ones, they win them every time.”

Okagbare herself admitted sleeping on the block but insisted she wasn’t fazed by the slow start.

“I just kept doing what I was supposed to do,” Okagbare said. “I kept pushing, kept pushing and I got it. I’m so happy, this made me so happy. I’m excited about this.”

Haven become the first ever woman to win two gold in an American collegiate championships, no serious athlete is going to consider the Beijing Olympic bronze medallist a rookie anymore in both the sprint and the long jump as the preparations for the London Games begging in earnest.
Of course on the men side Okagbare’s feat may pale into insignificant with the likes of Nigerian Adeniken Olapade and Obadele Thompson achieving that for UTEP but the Jamaicans and the other Caribbean who are looking forward to a clean sweep of the sprint in London now know they’ve got a serious contender in their radar.

“As far as women go, she’s at the very top,” Kitchens said of her place in programme history. “Overall, she’s right there with (Olapade) Adeniken (of the early 1990s) and Thompson in terms of legacy. This was special.”
Aside from being the first woman to win two titles in a single national meet, Okagbare joins Bob Beamon and Suleiman Nyambui as the only Miners to have accomplished two first-place finishes at the indoor national meet.

Okagbare had a day earlier reached the ultimate feat in college athletics by claiming the long jump crown with a 6.87m personal best. She thus became the 12th woman in UTEP history to win an indoor championship. Her mark was also a new NCAA record, supplanting the seven-year old record of 6.81m set by Elva Goulbourne in 2002.

With the way Blessing is going, I see her doing a sub 11secs in the 100m and even reaching the 7m mark out door in the jump pit. Any athlete capable of these achievements is someone that should be given all necessary encouragement to make the country proud,” concludes the AFN president with a tinge of joy in his voice.

… Runs World’s Fastest Time, Sets PB

Rave of the moment, Blessing Okagbare at the weekend in Austin, Texas began her outdoor campaign with a bang when she recorded a personal best en route to posting the world’s fastest time at 11.10 sec in the women’s 100m to continue where she left off in the just ended indoor season.

Okagbare had last July at the 20th Nigeria/NNPC/ExxonMobil track and field championships set a then personal best of 11.16 to outrun defending champion, Damola Osayomi to claim her first national title in any sprint event.

The incredible performance gave Okagbare her second title in the colours of University of Texas in El Paso at the 83rd Annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays hosted by the University of Texas at Austin.

The Nigerian had leapt to a world’s best mark of 6.88m to claim the long jump title and set a new meet and stadium record in the long jump on Friday afternoon. The General studies major at UTEP also anchored the school 400 relay team comprising of two other Nigerians, Gladys Nwaubani and Endurance Abinuwa to a time of 44.54 that ranks fifth in the national descending order list this year.

After putting up these fantastic feats at the weekend, she quipped: “I’m just trying to be the best I can be,” Okagbare said.

A week ago, the Beijing Olympics long jump bronze medallist also set a new personal best of 23.30 in the 200m and puts herself in a strong position to take Nigeria back to the podium as champions at the next Commonwealth Games in India.

Four years ago Nigeria failed to win any of the titles in track and field at the Melbourne, Australia Games with the duo of Olusoji Fasuba and Otonye Iworima winning silver medals in the 100m and triple jump respectively. Running Florida