News14 Feb 2010


Okagbare at the double in College Station

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Blessing Okagbare, a late addition to the long jump final, smashes her PB to win bronze with 6.91m (© Getty Images)

Nigerian Blessing Okagbare, competing here for the University of Texas at El Paso, served notice that she is ready for a big 2010 at the Texas A&M Challenge on Saturday (13).

The 2008 Olympic Long Jump bronze medallist began her short-but-sweet day’s work by leading the qualifiers in the women’s 60m dash in 7.24, just 0.02 off her PB. Then she won the Long Jump with only two pops – 6.65m and 6.70m, an indoor PB which puts her fourth on the year list. Returning to the track, she won the 60m final by a metre in 7.25 despite a less-than-perfect start – all that with 25-30 seconds of maximum effort.

Both 200s produced top-10 performances by Texas A&M athletes. Curtis Mitchell won the men’s 200in 20.80, (a time bettered this year only by his earlier 20.69), with Grenada’s Kirani James, running for Alabama, second in 20.95.

Jeneba Tarmoh won the women’s 200 impressively in 23.37; second in 23.47 while winning another section was Kalyn Floyd, daughter of Stanley Floyd, the US’ top 100m man in the boycott year of 1980, and Delisa Walton-Floyd, fifth in the 1988 Olympic 800m.

Another A&M long sprinter – Tabarie Henry of the U.S. Virgin Islands, won the men’s 400 in a good 46.14. Other good performances were also turned in by Phoebe Wright of the University of Tennessee, who won the women’s 800m in a bold front-running 2:02.84, and Texas A&M’s 3:35.00 victory, achieved largely thanks to a 51.52 anchor leg by Jessica Beard.

James Dunaway for the IAAF

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