Rio 2016: 200m Semis: Okagbare battles Schippers, Thompson

Reigning double Commonwealth Games sprint queen Blessing Okagbare faces a tough challenge and will need to run faster than her 22.23 seconds personal best to stand a chance of making the 200m final when the semi-final is run at 2am on Wednesday August 17, 2016. The seven-time Nigerian 100m queen came in first (22.71s) in her first round heat on Monday but faces another heartbreak in the semi-final after she was drawn in the same heat as reigning world champion Dafne Schippers of Holland and Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson who came second behind Schippers in Beijing at the IAAF Worlds last year and only early Sunday morning ran 10.71 seconds to win the 100m gold at the on-going Olympic in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. 

Also drawn in Okagbare’s first semi-final heat are USA’s Deajah Stevens who holds a personal season’s best of 22.25 seconds and Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith who incidentally came second (22.77s) behind Okagbare in the first round heat.

Okagbare, it would be recalled failed to qualify for the 100m semi-finals on Saturday and has not ran inside 11 seconds so far this year.