Nigeria claims surprise bronze medals
Nigeria's women 4x100m relay team and 19-year-old Long Jumper Blessing Okagbare gave Nigeria two surprise bronze medals today at the Beijing's Bird Nest stadium.
The quartet of Franca Idoko, Gloria Kemasuode, Halimat Ismaila, and African sprint champion Oludamola Osayomi claimed the bronze medal in a time of 43.04secs.
Nigeria, the Barcelona 1992 bronze medalists, only managed to qualified as one of the fastest losers from yesterday's semi-finals due to a near disastrous baton exchange between Gloria Kemasuode and Agnes Ozazuwa on the 3rd leg.
But, today with UTEP Senior Halimat Ismaila running in place of Ozasuwa benefitted from baton disasters by the highly favoured Jamaican and American quartets to pick third.
Russia, the Athens 2004 silver medal winners, with Evgeniya Polyakova, Aleksandra Fedoriva, Yulia Gushchina and Yuliya Chermoshanskaya took the gold medals in a time of 42.31 seconds, and reigning world championships bronze medalist Belgium, this time made up of Olivia Borlee, Hanna Marien, Elodie Ouedraogo, and Kim Gevaert, claimed the silver medals in a time of 42.54s.
Okagbare-truly blessed
University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) Sophomore Blessing Okagbare gave Nigeria her first medal when she took the bronze with a huge 6.91m personal best in her first jump in the women's Long Jump.
After failing by 0.01 metre to make the cut in the women's Long Jump Qualifying on Wednesday when she was beaten to the 12th position by Jamaica's Chelsea Hammod (6.60m to Okagbare's 6.59m), she must have thought her Olympics adventures was over.
But, Blessing was reinstated to the Long Jump final after Ukrainian heptathlete Liudmyla Blonska tested positive and was thrown out of the games yesterday.
Higa Maurreen MAGGI of Brazil took the Gold with her first effort of 7.04m, a season's best whilst defending Olympics Long Jump champion and current Triple jump silver medalist Tatiana Lebedeva of Russia settled for Silver despite a huge 7.03m final effort.
Women's Long Jump Final:
1 Higa Maurreen Maggi (Brazil) 7.04m SB Gold
2 Tatiana Lebedeva (Russia) 7.03mSB Silver
3 Blessing Okagbare (Nigeria) 6.91m PB Bronze
Women's 4 x 100m Relay Final:
1 Russia 42.31 Gold
2 Belgium 42.54 Silver
3 Nigeria 43.04 Bronze
