Blessing Okagbare set 200m African Record

Nigeria sprinter Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor raced home first in record-smashing fashion in the 200m event at the Wes Kittley Invitational at the Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, USA to not only become the world leader in the event so far this year but also smashed the 22.07 seconds African record set by Mary Onyali some 22 years ago at the Wetklasse Grand Prix in Zurich, Switzerland.

Okagbare set a new record of 22.04 seconds on the night. It was Okagbare’s opening race of the year and the tall and beautiful reigning Commonwealth Games sprints queen has already raised hopes of another successful sprints double next month when she goes for the defence of her Commonwealth Games titles in the Gold Coast, Australia.

The reigning Nigeria 100m champion is also close to fulfilling her wish of becoming the first Nigerian woman to run inside 22 seconds in the 200m.