Nigeria’s sprints queen, Blessing Okagbare, hopes
to put behind her the disappointment of Monday’s women’s 100m final when she
takes to the tracks again on Wednesday in the women’s 200m heats.
Okagbare is Nigeria’s major hope of winning a
medal at the ongoing IAAF World Athletics Championships in
Beijing, China but
she faltered to an eighth-place finish in the 100m, which was won by Olympic
gold medallist, Jamaica’s Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
The 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist will
compete in the heat three against six other athletes. She is expected to ease
through the heats into the semi-finals given that her personal best of
22.23secs and season best of 22.67secs is second only to USA’s Jeneba Tarmoh,
who has both personal and season bests of 22.23secs.
Tarmoh is a London 2012 gold and Moscow 2013
World Championships silver medallist with the USA 4X100m relay team. She has
yet to win an individual medal on the world stage since she began competing in
the senior category in 2011.
Other strong contestants in the heats are
Netherland’s Dafne Schippers, who won the silver medal of the women’s 100m, in
the heat six of the event, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson and Veronica Campbell-Brown
in the heat four and five respectively. Great Britain’s Margaret Adeoye is also
in the race for a semi-final slot in heat five.