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| Blessing Okagbare |
By Onochie Anibeze
Blessing Okagbare has remained among the top ten athletes in
the world for more than two years now.
After winning a Long Jump bronze medal at the Beijing
Olympics, she focused more in the 100m at the London Olympics, a development
which technocrats faulted and blamed it on her managers on the grounds
that she had greater potential to do
better in the Long Jump if she was better guided.
And with the World Championships taking place this August in
Rus sia, with the Olympic Games barely three years away, Blessing is still on
track as a medal potential. She has run a wind assisted 10.75 in Oregon this
year and jumped 7.14 m in the Long Jump in Doha, Qatar. That would have been an
African record if it was not also wind-aided.
‘’Someday, I’ll put a smile on the face of Dr. Emmanuel
Uduaghan, the governor of Delta State.
That is my prayer and I’m working towards it,” Blessing said
yesterday, just after reigning as queen of the tracks for the third consecutive
year. She ran 11.25 to win the Cross River/AFN World Championship trials in
Calabar last week. Her outing was part of her World Championship preparation
which she said she started last November, few months after the London Olympics.
‘’When I qualified for the 100m final in London, everybody
banked on me to win a medal. It didn’t happen and many people saw me as a failure.
But the Governor of Delta State did not see me as one.
He called me to encourage me and told me that I was one of
the best in the world. He has been very fatherly to me. He is a great mentor
and motivator and I want to repeat here that my prayer is to put a smile on his
face some day with a medal.”
Blessing wished that the Federal Government could do more
for sports in the country.
‘’We have the potential to do well but we need more in terms
of planning and support from the Federal Government. Without people like Governor Uduaghan, the
AFN President, Chief Ogba and Amaju Pinnick, it is possible that one would have
dropped out of track and field.
When I dedicate anything I win to Dr. Uduaghan I know why I
do so. Here’s a governor who takes interest in your training, nutrition,
coaching and general welfare. And it is not only me. He does that to some
athletes too.
He is the pillar of our sports in Nigeria now. He has given
me training grants and has been good to sports generally and I wish others could emulate him for
Nigeria to become world beaters.”
Head of sports in Delta, Pinnick said that they would
continue to support athletes.
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