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Who Is Blessing Okagbare, The Famous Nigerian Athlete
Blessing Okagbare is a famous Nigerian athlete currently serving a 10-year ban for breaching multiple World Athletics anti-doping rules.
Blessing Okagbare is a former Nigerian track and field athlete. She was specialized in long jump and sprints. Okagbare is an Olympic and world companionship medalist in the long jump, and also a world medalist in the 200 meters among others.
Okagbare is currently serving a 10-year ban for breaching multiple World Athletics anti-doping rules. Her ban expires on July 30, 2031.
It was said that it was Athletics Integrity Unit that found her to have taken both human growth hormone and EPO over an extended period, and to have failed to co-operate with the investigation.
According to the report on Punch Newspaper, Okagbare was expelled from the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 before the women’s 100m semi-finals after testing positive for human growth hormone at an out-of-competition test in Slovakia on July 19.
Recall that the Olympic medalist had blamed officials of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, after ten of the country’s track and field athletes were banned from competing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which runs the anti-doping program for the sport, said the athletes failed to meet the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 of the Anti-Doping Rules for ‘Category A’ federations.
Reacting to the ban, Okagbare in a tweet insisted that the AFN were busy fighting for power to the extent that they forgot their major responsibility. She added that athletes are always at the receiving end of the damages because the sports system in Nigeria is flawed.
Childhood and Early Career
Okagbare was born on October 9, 1988, in Sapele, Delta State, Nigeria. According to reports, she was encouraged by her teachers and family to take up sports due to her athletic physique. She, however, began to play football as a teenager at her high school and later took an interest in track and field events.
At her early stage as a track and field athlete, she competed in the long jump, triple jump and high jump events at the Nigerian school championships and won a medal in each of the events. On the senior national stage, she was a triple jump bronze medalist at the 2004 Nigerian National Sports Festival.
Okagbare’s first international outing came at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics, where she performed in the qualifying rounds of both the long and triple jump competitions. At the 2007 All-Africa Games, she won the silver medal in the long jump and finished fourth in the triple jump.
Professional Career
Okagbare began to make headlines as a national athlete after she won a silver medal in the women’s long jump event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing at the age of 19. The following year She was selected to compete at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics but did not start either the 100 m or long jump.
Okagbare scored a 100 m/long jump double at the NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championship for the University of Texas at El Paso, completing an undefeated collegiate streak for the UTEP Miners that year. She won the Nigerian 100 m title in 2010, running a time of 11.04 seconds, and stated that she was opting out of the long jump in order to save herself for the upcoming African championships.
At the African Championships in 2010, she won gold in the long jump again with a distance of 6.62 m and another gold in the 100 m distance with a run of 11.03 s flat. She won her third gold at the end of the championship as part of the Nigerian 4×100 m women’s relay team.
In 2011, Okagbare won three medals at the All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique. She won silver in the 100 m and gold in the long jump with a jump of 6.50 m. She was part of the Nigerian quartet that won gold in the 4 × 100 m with a time of 43.34.
In 2012, She jumped 6.97 m in the long jump in Calabar during the Nigerian championship. She won new continental medals at the 2012 African Championships in Porto-Novo. In the 100 m, she was beaten to silver by Zang Milama, while in the long jump she claimed gold with a jump of 6.96 m.
In April 2013, in Walnut, California, Blessing Okagbare set a personal record in the 200 m with a time of 22.31 s. Then, in July, she improved her personal best in the long jump with successive jumps of 6.98 m at the Athletissima meet in Lausanne, and 7.00 m during the Monaco Herculis meet. On 27 July 2013, at the London Anniversary Games, Okagbare set a new African record of 10.86 s in her 100 m race. She won the final about an hour later, setting a new African record of 10.79, in a race where she beat reigning 100 m Olympic gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. Okagbare’s record eclipsed the existing record by compatriot Glory Alozie of 10.90 s which had stood since 1998.
At the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Okagbare won the silver medal in the long jump. Her jump of 6.99 m put her in second place behind Brittney Reese of the United States by only two centimeters. In the 100 m final, she placed sixth with a run of 11.04 s and also placed third in the 200 m race.
2014 Commonwealth Games
Okagbare participated in both the 100m and 200m women races. She made it through to the finals of the 100m and won with a time of 10.85 seconds, breaking the games record of 10.91 seconds set by Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie 12 years earlier at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Okagbare also won the gold medal in the 200, with a time of 22.25 seconds. In doing so, she became the fourth woman to win the 100m and 200m double at the Commonwealth Games. She also holds the Women’s 100 meters Commonwealth Games record for the fastest time at 10.85 seconds.
2015 World Relays and African Games
She ran the leadoff leg in the 4 × 200 m at the 2015 World Relays. The team consisting of Okagbare, Regina George, Dominique Duncan and Christy Udoh, won the race and set an African record in the process. She did not appear in the 200 meters at the IAAF World Championships or the All Africa Games due to a hamstring injury she sustained while finishing last in the final of the 100 meters at the World Championships. At the end of the season, she did participate in the IAAF Diamond League meet, the Weltklasse Zürich in Zurich, finishing second in the 100 meters. The Director-General of Nigeria’s National Sports Commission Al Hassan Yakmu was angered by the perceived snub:
“I was shocked when I saw Okagbare competing in the Diamond League in Zurich last Thursday. I was wondering if it was the same Okagbare who refused to compete for Nigeria in the 200m event at the IAAF World Championship in Beijing. She even opted out of Team Nigeria for the All-Africa Games in Congo. Why? I have said it times without number that any athlete who feels too big to compete for Nigeria in the All-Africa Games should not bother about the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. No athlete is bigger than Nigeria.”
— Al Hassan Yakmu
It was initially reported that Okagbare was banned from representing Nigeria at the 2016 Olympics. The Athletics Federation of Nigeria eventually refuted the claim. Though she opted out of the individual events at the All-Africa Games, she did run in the 4 × 100 m relay and helped the Nigerian team (Cecilia Francis, Okagbare, Ngozi Onwumere and Lawretta Ozoh) secure the gold medal.
2016 Rio Olympics
Blessing had a disappointing show at the 2016 Rio Olympics as she finished without a single medal. She never made it to the final but was ranked 3rd in 100m semifinal finishing at 11.09s and ranked 8th with her teammates in the final of 4 × 100 m relay.
2020 Tokyo Olympics
Okagbare won her first-round heat in the 100 metres with a time of 11.05. She was subsequently suspended on 31 July 2021 after failing a drug test taken on 19 July 2021, which tested positive for human growth hormone.
Blessing Okagbare Net Worth
Blessing Okagbare is one of the richest Long Jumper and is also listed as one of the most popular Long Jumper. Blessing Okagbare net worth is approximately $1.5 Million according to Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider.
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