By Toby Prince
Africa’s fastest woman, Blessing Okagbare, ran a time of 11.02 seconds in the women 100 metres finals to finish in a disappointing last position at the 15th IAAF Championship in Beijing on Monday afternoon.
The Team Nigeria captain qualified for the finals of the event with the third fastest time of 10:89 seconds but didn’t show up for the party at the finals.
Jamaican sprint queen, Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, claimed gold with a time of 10:71 seconds, with Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands and America’s Toro Bowie in second and third places respectively.
Fraser-Pryce underlined her status as queen of the sprints with an unprecedented third World Championship 100 metres title in Beijing.
It was at the same arena she won the first of her two Olympic gold medals in 2008; however the Jamaican wasn’t pleased with her 10:74 seconds, her second best for the year.
“I will always work hard and do my best,” she said. “When I ran the heats, I remembered back at the 2008 Olympic Games when I was a 21-year-old.
“I expected nothing then. And I came out here again tonight and won a gold medal. I am really excited.”
“I get tired of 10.7s,” the 28-year-old said. “I just wanted to put a great race together. I want a 10.6 something. Hopefully in my next race I’ll get it together. I just work hard and focus on executing.”
Coincidentally, it was not just Okagbare who had a bad at work. Another shock was former world champion, Veronica Campbell Brown, who finished in fourth outside the medal places.
Okagbare’s time was far below the expectations of many as she failed to either equal or surpass her personal best of 10:79 and season’s best of 10:80.
Good news for Okagbare is Fraser-Pryce confirmed she would not defend her world title in the longer sprint, despite being named on the Jamaica team for the event.
“I am not considering the 200m, the plan has only been to only run in the 100m,” she said.
