Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare yesterday at the IAAF diamond league meeting in Monaco made history as the second Nigerian nay African woman to legally hit the 7m mark in the long jump.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medallist leapt a wind-aided 7.04m in the second round to win the event and the maximum points on offer to bring her total points haul to 10 and consolidate her position as the top ranked long jumper in the diamond league rankings.
The historic part of her night however came in the third round when she leapt a legal 7m to set a new personal best and a place in history books as the second African woman to break the 7m barrier after Chioma Ajunwa whose gold winning 7.12m leap at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 still remains the African record.
A trail wind of 2.1 mps had rendered her second round 7.04m effort invalid just the same way it was about three months ago when her 7.14m leap was aided by an excessive following wind. Okagbare has,by this feat reinforced her candidature for a podium appearance in Moscow next month at the 14th IAAF World championships.
The Nigerian is also a top candidates for one of the 100m and 200m medals on offer and looks set to become the second Nigerian woman to win an individual medal after Glory Alozie at the IAAF worlds.