Olympics: Okagbare ready to battle rivals in Budapest

A glimpse of what to expect at the Tokyo Olympic Games will be served up on Tuesday at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial Meeting at the Puskás Ferenc Stadium in Budapest, Hungary.

Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare will be up against some of her would-be rivals in Tokyo in the Women’s 100m event.

According to the start list made public by the organisers, Okagbare will be up against the Jamaican duo of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah as well as Ivory Coast’s Marie Jose Ta Lou in a star-studded women’s 100m race.

Aside from gunning for a strong show against her stern rivals, Okagbare will hope to complete a hat trick of wins in Budapest on Tuesday.

While she could only settle for a third-place finish in her debut at the meeting in 2011; running 22.94 seconds to place third in the 200m, Okagbare  has had it good on her subsequent visits

She finished first in the 100m in 2016 in 10.92 seconds and also won in 2017, with a time of 11.17 seconds.

Meanwhile, two other Olympic-bound Nigerian athletes will also be competing in Budapest on Tuesday. Divine Oduduru and shot putter, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, will be in action.

Oduduru is lined up to compete in the 200m event after failing to show up at the last Diamond League meeting in Stockholm due to reported visa hitches while Enekwechi will make his debut in the European circuit this year.

Enekwechi won the Nigerian Shot Put title (21.47m) last month and holds a personal season’s best of 21.53m achieved early last month at the USATF Showcase meeting in Prairie View, Texas, USA.

He will make his Olympics debut in Tokyo and will hope to at least match his feat at the World Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar, two years ago when he got to the final.(Premium Times)

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