Olympics, World, Commonwealth and African Championship medallist Blessing Okagbare raced to a new 100m personal season’s best (10.90) at the Doha Diamond League meeting on Friday to place second behind Jamaica’s multiple world champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pyrce (10.84).
It was the Nigerian’s second sub-11 seconds time of the season in the blue ribband race and her fastest since she ran the same time four years ago at the same event, placing second behind Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou who won the race in 10.85 seconds.
This will be the first time in six years Okagbare will legally run inside 11 seconds twice after running 10.97 seconds at the USATF Grand Prix at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon last month.
The last time the reigning Nigerian 100/200m record holder broke 11 seconds at least twice in a season was in 2015 and that year she made it to the final of the 100m event at the World Athletics Championship in Beijing, China.
Since that year, the 2014 Commonwealth Games sprint queen has neither raced inside 11 seconds more than once nor has she made the final of any global event.
The 33 year old Nigerian ( will be 33 in October) is now fifth in the 2021 top list behind the quartet of new kid on the block, USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson (10.72), Jamaica’s 2016 double Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.78) and her compatriots, Fraser-Pryce (10.84) and Natasha Morrison (10.87).
Okagbare is yet to win any event at the Doha Diamond League since she made her debut in 2011, running 23.19 to place fourth in the 200m.
The Nigerian returned the following year to run 11.01 seconds in the 100m event to place fourth. It was a personal best-setting race at the time before breaking 11 seconds four times later that year including the 10.92 seconds she ran to win her semi final heat at the London Olympics.
In 2013 she turned to the long jump where she leapt a massive but wind-aided 7.14m to place second behind USA’s multiple world champion, Britney Reese who would also later that year edge the Nigerian to the gold medal at the World Athletics Championship in Moscow, Russia.
Okagbare returned to the track at the Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium the following year but failed to beat Fraser-Pryce who won in 11.13 against the Nigerian who ran 11.18 seconds in the 100m event.
The Olympic long jump bronze medal winner in 2008 was absent in 2015 and 2016 but returned in 2017 to place sixth (23.15) in the 200m.
The Wanda Diamond League is scheduled to make its third stop at the Golden Gala in Rome (Florence this year) with Okagbare aiming for her first visit to the event where another Nigerian, Charity Opara ran a blistering 49.29 seconds 400m lifetime best in July 1998 to end the year as the fastest over the distance in the world.