BY Victor Akhidenor
Africa’s sprint queen, Blessing Okagbare, added more lines of smile to the face of Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan on Monday at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
Racing to gold in a Games record of 10.85 secs in the 100 metres event, Okagbare “gave me a great feeling”, said Dr. Uduaghan who was at the 80,000-capacity stadium to cheer the 25-year-old athlete to victory.
Uduaghan had been giving yearly training grants to the Delta-born multi-talented athlete long before she burst into the world scene.
In 2013, Uduaghan also approved a three-year grant of $360,000 to the fastest woman in Africa as part of a package of incentives to make her a world beater.
“It was a great feeling today being at the stadium in Glasgow and watching Blessing Okagbare winning the 100m in grand style in the presence of over 80 thousand people,” the governor said on Monday.
The state commissioner for information, Chike Ogeah, said Uduaghan’s gesture “is a product of his passion for developing human capital, a critical pivot of his administration’s three-point agenda”.
More blessings will be expected from Okagbare with the long jump still ahead ─ not to talk about her specialty: 200 metres.
Okagbare is an Olympic and World Championships medallist in the long jump, and a world medallist in the 200 metres. She holds the African women sprint record of 10.79 secs.
At the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, Okagbare won the silver medal in the long jump ─ the first medal to be won by a Nigerian in 13 years.
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