Blessing Okagbare last night at the Letzigrund stadion in Zurich, Switzerland, failed to jump into history book as the first Nigerian to win the IAAF Diamond League trophy and the accompanying $40,000 cash prize.
The IAAF World Championships silver medallist settled for another second place with her 6.76m third round jump which brought her total points tally to 14 behind Britain’s Shara Proctor who jumped 6.88m to win with 17 points.
Reigning world champion, Britney Reese of the USA who was joint first with 10 points with Okagbare coming to the meeting jumped a disappointing 6.37m to finish seventh.
Okagbare will however have another chance to make history next week at the memorial Van damme in Brussels, Belgium, at the final leg of the 14-leg IAAF Diamond League meetings.
The Nigerian is tied on 12 points in the 100m event with reigning World and Olympic champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pyrce of Jamaica, who emerged as the 200m winner last night in Zurich.
Okagbare can become the first Nigerian in 15 years to be crowned champion in any IAAF-organised one-day meetings after Falilat Ogunkoya who won the 400m event (49.73) in the then IAAF Golden League/Grand Prix final at the Luizhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia.
Another Nigerian, Charity Opara (50.09) was second in that race.
No comments:
Post a Comment