Blessing Okagbare will begin her chase for a fourth consecutive 100m final appearance today as the 16th IAAF World
Championships enter Day 2 at the Olympic Stadium in London.
The Nigerian, who successfully completed a sprint double on British soil three years ago when she won the 100m and 200m gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland has been drawn against USA’s Torie Bowie in the third heat of the first round of the 100m.
Okagbare will run from lane eight while Bowie will run from lane 4. Both Okagbare and Bowie should be among the three automatic qualifiers from the heat alongside either Desire Henry of Britain or Ivet Lalova-Colio of Bulgaria.
The Nigerian finished fifth in her first appearance in the 100m final in 2011 in Daegu, South Korea and dropped to seventh two years later in Moscow, Russia.
Two years ago the Sapele-born sprinter finished 8th in the final despite coming to the championships with an impressive 10.80 seconds personal season’s best.
This time she will hope for a better luck as she begins the chase tomorrow morning.
Reigning world and Olympic champion Elaine Thompson will run from lane 2 in the second heat while Dafne Schippers of Holland has been drawn in lane in heat four.
African record holder in the event, Muriel Ahoure of Cote D’Ivoire will run from lane 8 in the opening heat of the first round.
Meanwhile, Shot Putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi has been drawn in the second qualifying group of the event which starts this morning.
No Nigerian man has thrown himself into the final in the history of the championships and Enekwechi will only need to throw 20.75m to make history or be among the 12 best throwers in the two qualifying groups.
Quarter-miler Samson Nataniel will also be in action today morning and he has been drawn to run from lane 5 in the sixth heat and would qualify for the semi-final if he repeats the 45.23 seconds personal best he ran in Abuja last June.
