Blessing Okagbare needed two rounds to leave a long-lasting impression of her superb long jumping form and eventually taking the win to add to her impressive season’s collection at the Stade Louis 2, in Monaco, France.
Despite drawing fouls in the fourth and fifth rounds and recording her lowest score in the last, Okagbare’s wind-assisted 7.04 (+2.1) jump in the second round saw her claim victory ahead of Russia’s Klishina Darya’s 6.98 (+2.4) and Great Britain’s Proctor Shara’s 6.74 (+0.6) jumps.
On the completion of the first-round, the versatile Nigerian led with 6.86 as Shara and Funmi Jimoh of the United States both fouled. She returned to jump 7.04 and 7.00 (+0.00) before jumping foul in the fourth and fifth and 5.45 (+1.8) in the final round.
Her performance at Herculis tonight (Friday) sees her leap to number one in the IAAF Diamond League ranking after gaining 4 points to increase her points haul to ten. Okagbare will definitely be the athlete to beat in the long jump in Moscow.
