Nigerian Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor Wednesday leapt into the final of the long jump event at the on-going IAAF World Championships in London.
Okagbare will now fancy her chances of winning her third global medal following a pair of silver medal in 2008 at the Olympics in Beijing where she first won a fortuitous bronze medal (6.91m) which was later elevated to silver following the disqualification of Russia’s Tatyana Lebedeva for positive dope test.
She also won a silver medal in Moscow in 2013,jumping 6.99m,two centimetres behind multiple world champions,Britney Reese of the USA who picked her third consecutive gold medal medal in the event.
Okagbare will however still battle familiar foes for a place in the podium come Friday as three-time world champion Reese,reigning world and Olympic champion Tatiana Bartoleta of the USA,Darya Klishna of Russia competing as a neutral,Lorraine Ugen of Britain and Ivana Spanovic of Serbia all came through the qualification test for places in the final as none of the 12 qualifiers failed to hit the 6.70m qualification mark under the atrocious condition at the Olympic stadium in London.
Meanwhile Okagbare’s compatriot,Ese Brume failed to overcome her sloppy pre-championships form as she crashed out of the competition.The Nigerian’s 6.38m third and final round leap was not enough as she finished 17th in the overall classification.
