Reigning African 200m record holder (22.04), Blessing Okagbare will be hoping to lay down a marker this evening at the Stade Louis 11 stadium in Monaco where the Wanda Diamond League will make its sixth of 14 scheduled stops this year.
The Nigerian is among the stellar cast of elite sprinters confirmed to race in the 200m event at the prestigious meeting with a forthnight to the start of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Others confirmed are Jamaica’s multiple world champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pyrce who raced inside 22 seconds for the first time in her career at the Jamaican trial last month; Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller-Uibo who has broken 22 seconds in her career but holds a 22.03 seconds personal season’s best, USA’s Tamara Clark who also raced inside 22 seconds this year for the first time in her career last month at the American as well as fellow African, Jose-Marie Ta Lou who holds a personal best of 22.08 seconds and a personal season’s best of 22.36 seconds.
Okagbare knows she needs to make history this evening by racing inside 22 seconds to become the first Nigerian nay African woman to achieve the feat in the half lap race for her to be ranked as a contender for one of the three medals on offer in the event at the Tokyo Olympics.
The 33 year old holds the two fastest time in the event (22.04 and 22.05) in the continent but she will have to duck inside 22 seconds at the games to stand a chance of making the podium for the second time in her fourth appearance 13 years after she won a long jump silver on her debut.
Okagbare can thus lay down a marker at the Stade Louis 11 this evening, a venue where she has made history in the recent past.
The Nigerian has made five trips to Monaco since 2012 and has won twice viz once in the 100m when she ran 10.96 seconds to win in 2012 and in the long jump in 2013 when she made history as the second woman in African long jump history to hit the 7 metres mark when she leapt a distance of 7m in her third attempt to win the competition.
Okagbare has set three personal best so far this year and adding a fourth in the 200m event will give her a psychological boost as the final countdown to the Olympics begins.
The Nigerian began by setting two records in one day at the Randal Tyson Indoor Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA where the third leg of the American indoor track league held.
She began by setting a 7.10 seconds best in the 60m and followed it up with a 23.01 seconds in the 200m.
Over 25 days later, she set a new 53.21 seconds mark in the 400m, a performance that sowed faith in the minds of athletic buffs that the long striding Nigerian will break the 22 seconds barrier this season.