London 2012 Olympics: See the Athlete who is Likely to give Nigeria Its First Gold Medal

Today 4th of August 2012 marks the 8th day of the 30th Olympic Games held in London and from the beginning, it’s been medals galore for countries like China and the USA. For the first 5 days China topped the medals table but that position has now been overturned, with the USA currently having 23golds,10silvers and 13bronze medals. China on the other hand has 21gold,16silver,10bronze medals.

Africa on the other hand has very limited representation on the medals table. South Africa has shown their prowess in water related spsorts by winning three golds collectively in swimming and men’s group rowing, and another silver in swiming. Ethiopia, Kenya and Egypt are also present on the table with one medal each. Nigeria unfortunately has come nowhere close so far, as the best we have done is 8th position in mens weightlifting, 77kg category.

Despite all the disappointments so far, Nigerians are firmly behind their athletes and very hopeful for better performances as the Olympic progresses. Further brightening our ray of hope is Blessing Okagbere, who yesterday ran the second fastest time of 10:93 , only surpassed by Carmelita Jerta of the USA(10:83)  in the 1st round  of the Women’s 100m. She  automatically qualified for the semi-finals tonight.

It should be recalled that earlier this year, sometime in July,  Okagbare  made a big statement when she defeated all the favorites to win the 100 meters finals at the Diamond meet in London Grand Prix,Crystal Palace. Okagbare powered past American duo of Carmelita Jeter, Tianna Madison and Jamaican Shelly Ann Fraser, finishing in a time of 11.01 seconds.

From all indiction Blessing Okagbare is full of promise and the likes of Carmelita Jerta poses no threat to her. We are hopeful that she will continue the winning streak tonight in the semi-finals and possibly become even better than her predecessors such as Mary Onyali and Falilat Ogunkoya-Osheku who brought a lot of glory to Nigeria in track events.

At this point we say: GO TEAM NIGERIA GO! And look forward to the race by 7:35pm tonight.

Below is a brief Profile of Blessing, Take a look:

Name: Blessing Okagbare Country: Nigeria
Nigeria
Birth date and place		Age
10/09/1988 – Sapele (NGR)		23
Height	Weight	Gender
180 cm / 5’11”	68 kg / 150 lbs	F
Sport
Representing Nigeria in: Women’s 100m Women’s Long Jump Women’s 4 x 100m Relay Occupation: Student Education: Advertisement University of Texas, United States Language(s) spoken: English Coach: Advertisement Kebba Tolbert (iaaf.org, 2010)