Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare successfully completed a Commonwealth Games sprint double after another dominant performance in the women’s 200m final at Hampden Park on Thursday.
In the wake of the multi-talented athlete’s triumph over 100m in a Games record time on Monday, the 25-year-old held her nerves to finish the 200m down the line in 22.25secs, ahead of Team England’s pair of Jodie Williams and Bianca Williams, both finishing behind the African spring queen in a time of 22.50secs and 22.58secs respectively
The victory also saw her become the first African to clinch a Commonwealth Games sprint double.
It was always Okagbare’s race to win in the absence of Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who will only be competing in the women’s relay events in Glasgow, and the Nigerian ensured there was no fairy tale disappointment on her way to a second gold medal.
Having qualified from last night’s heat and the semi-finals early Thursday night in 22.99secs and 22.43secs respectively, the 2013 World Championships bronze medalist ensured there was no deep in form and eventually made it two wins out of two.
While the Beijing Olympic bronze medalist shifted attention to the track at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Team-mate Ese Brume, 19, won the women’s long-jump event in the absence of her hero.
Brume’s 6.56m jump was enough to help her clinch gold in the long jump final.
AndrewDick won silver in the men’s freestyle 86kg wrestling after losing the event’s final to Canada’s Tamerlan Aasagziev.
There were also bronze medals for team Nigeria’s Ifeoma Nwonye in the women’s 55kg freestyle wrestling, Amas Daniel in the men’s 61kg and Sampson Clark in the men’s 65kg freestyle wrestling events.
As at time of report, Team Nigeria has won 25 medals (8 gold, 6 silvers and 11 bronze) and are ranked 8th on the medal standings.
