Okagbare soars to windy 6.84m in Budapest and Nigeria hires Cuban Coaches
Africa's queen of track and Nigerian champion, Blessing Okagbare, at the inaugural Istvan Gyulai Memorial on Saturday in Budapest, won the women's Long Jump with a wind-assisted 6.84 metres (+2.9) leap.
Okagbare later came back to take third place in the 200m clocking a season’s best 22.94 seconds behind Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown winner in 22.26 seconds and American Sanya Richards-Ross who was second in 22.63 seconds.
Meanwhile, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has secured the services of three Cuban jump coaches for the Athletics Federation of Nigeria ahead of the All Africa Games scheduled to hold in September in Mozambique.
Speaking on the issue yesterday President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Chief Solomon Ogba, said the three coaches were mainly for jumps (long jump, high jump and triple jump), throws (shot put and discuss) and stick sprints, (100m and 110m).
"We are really excited with the coming of the Cubans because they are going to help us consolidate in the area where we have serious comparative advantage," said Ogba.
Interestingly, Nigerian jumpers like Doreen Amata and Tosin Oke have been doing very well in the women's high jump and the triple jump.
Amata has remained consistent, finishing second behind world leader Blanka Vlasic twice. She even went ahead to equal her national record of 1.95m to remain the best in the continent.
Oke on the other hand jumped 17.20m to stay in strong contention for the African gold in Maputo in September.
