Nigeria’s queen of the tracks, Blessing Okagbare-Ighotegunor has joined the growing number of the country’s athletes qualifying for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, following her silver medal placement at the Diamond League meet in Shanghai, China.
Although Okagbare-Ighoteguonor’s season’s best time of 11.07 seconds could only see her finish behind Aleia Hobbs of USA (11.03) it was good enough to take her to the 2020 Games in The Land of The Rising Sun.
Her time was also a ticket to this year’s IAAF World Championship, which is billed to hold in Doha, Qatar, as she placed ahead of double Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson, who was third in 11.14 seconds.
Okagbare-Ighoteguonor, who returned to the IAAF Shanghai Diamond League after four years, made a good impression in what was her first 100m race of the season.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics long jump bronze medalist is now on course for her fourth appearance at the Games and becomes the sixth Nigerian athlete to qualify for the World Championship, behind Divine Oduduru, Raymond Ekevwo, Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume and Ebuka Enekwechi.