Top Nigerian athletes, Blessing Okagbare, and Grace Nwokocha, have qualified for the semi-final of the women’s 100m at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
Okagbare finished top in Heat 6 in a time of 11.05 (-0.1) seconds while United Kingdom’s Asha Phillips finished second in 11.31 seconds and Bahamian athlete Tynia Gaither came third in 11.34 seconds.
This is Okagbare’s third consecutive Olympics semi-final and the fourth appearance in the Olympics, The PUNCH reports.
On her part, home-based athlete Grace Nwokocha finished third with a new Personal Best of 11.00 seconds to qualify for the semi-final.
World no. 1 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the heat with 10.84s with Switzerland’s Ajia Del Fonte placing 2nd with 10.91s.
32-year-old Okagbare is an Olympic and World Championship medallist. She is the women’s Commonwealth Games record holder and current African record holder in 200m.
While Nwokocha qualified for her first semi-final, Okagbare will be running in her third since she made her debut in the event at the 2012 Olympics in London.
20-year-old Nwokocha has been drawn to run from lane nine in the third semi-final heat with the fastest woman alive, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, Daryl Neita of Great Britain, Teahna Daniels of the USA, and fellow African, Muriel Ahoure of Ivory Coast.
On her part, Okagbare has been drawn in the first semi-final heat alongside two heavyweights of the event, defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica, and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith.
Comments
Post a Comment