Okagbare Loses Gold In London Diamond League

On two occasions yesterday, Africa and Commonwealth’s sprints queen, Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor, failed to find answer to the superior power of Dutchwoman, Dafne Schippers, as she finished second in the final of the 2015 IAAF Diamond League, tagged the London Anniversary Games.

After beating Okagbare in the heat earlier in the day, Schippers proved too difficult a nut to crack for the Nigerian and other sprinters, including five Americans in the final, which she won in 10.92s. She ran 10.99s on her way to the final.

Okagbare was second in the race in 10.98s, thus losing the 100m crown, which she won two years ago at same venue, when she emerged Africa’s fastest woman with a winning time of 10.79 seconds. That was on July 27, 2013.

In yesterday’s race, Okagbare ran a rather slow race in the heat, finishing second behind the Dutch in 11.00s. She however improved to 10.98s in the final to settle for the silver, beating her African rival, Murielle Ahoure of Cote d’Ivoire to the third position.

Ahoure ran 11.01s to finish third ahead of Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (11.06s), Jeneba Tarmoh, USA (11.10s), Tianna Bartoletta, USA (11.12s), ChaRonda Williams, USA (11.14s), Alexandria Anderson, USA (11.23s) and Shalonda Solomon, also of USA (11.31s).