Okagbare to feature in 4x100m only at Commonwealth Games

Blessing Okagbare will not defend her sprints double titles at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia as she will feature in only the women’s 4x100m relays, according to information on the competition’s website.

The website on Wednesday listed Isoken Igbinosun, Jennifer Madu, Rosemary Chukwuma, Tobi Amusan and Joy Udo-Gabriel as the athletes to complete  for Nigeria in  4x100m relay.

Okagbare won the women’s 100m and 200m titles at Glasgow 2014  and has been expected to defend both titles in Australia.

She  on Saturday set a new African record in the 200m after she ran 22.04secs in her first race of the season at the Wes Kittley Invitational Track and Field Meet at the Abilene Christian University on Sunday to erase the 22-year-old previous African record of 22.07secs set by Mary Onyali in Switzerland in 1996.

Igbinosun, Madu and Chukwuma were listed to represent the country in the 100m while there was no entry for the women in the 200m.

However, athletics coach Olawale Olatunji said the rule for the Games allows  athletes to be registered 24 hours before the commencement of the event.

“The information on the website is not final. The rules for the Commonwealth Games are flexible and the final list of registered athletes for an event would only be confirmed 24 hours before the event starts. Except the rules changes in Gold Coast, which I doubt,” he said.

“Blessing can still compete in the two events. Only when the start lists are released and her name is missing that we can confirm she is not competing in the events.”