Barely a week after cruising to a sprint double at the All Nigeria
Championships in Calabar, Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare has continued to
show tremendous improvement as she upstaged fierce rivals Shelly-Ann
Fraser-Pryce and Carmelita Jeter to win the 200 meters in 22.55
seconds at the Birmingham Diamond League on Sunday.
Okagbare was not given much chance for a top finish with many analysts
predicting that the Diamond League stand out race would be a head to
head between Fraser-Pryce and Jeter.
Okagbare, who tops the list of the 19 athletes Nigeria is taking to
the World Championships in Russia in August, however, surprised many
as she made an unusually strong start and held off Fraser-Pryce, the
two-time Olympic champion in the 100 metres.
Jeter, the world 200 champion, trailed in a disappointing seventh in 23.36.
In the other top sprint race of the day, Nesta Carter of Jamaica
capitalized on the absence of the leading men's sprinters by winning
the 100 in 9.99 and Dawn Harper-Nelson led an American 1-2 in the
women's 100 hurdles, edging Kellie Wells to victory in 12.64.
World and Olympic champion, Sally Pearson, was fourth.
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