Heroes Of 2014: Blessing Okagbare

Meet Blessing Okagbare, the nominee for 2014 Naij.com Internet Person Of The Year. 

Naij.com offers you a chance to think and to choose the one and only Nigerian who could be named the most prominent and influential person of the year 2014. Every working day, starting from December 15, we shall introduce 1 of the 10 nominees to you.
As soon as we’re done, our virtual ‘elections’ commence! The person to get most of the votes will be titled Naij.com Internet Person Of The Year.
This year Blessing Okabare has really made Nigeria proud.
The talented track and field athlete specializes in long jump and sprints. She is an Olympic and World Championships medalist in the long jump, and a world medallist in the 200 metres. She also holds the Women’s 100 metres Commonwealth Games record with the time of 10.85 seconds. Her 100 m best of 10.79 makes her the African record holder for the event. She was the African 100 m and long jump champion in 2010. She has also won medals at the All-Africa Games and the IAAF Continental Cup.

Okagbare was born in Sapele, Delta, in Nigeria. At her high school she began to take an interest in track and field. She participated in a number of disciplines early on, competing in the long jump, triple jump and high jump events at the Nigerian school championships and winning medals in each.

During 2014 Commonwealth Games Okagbare participated in both the 100m and 200m races. She made it through to the finals of the 100m and won with a time of 10.85, breaking the games record of 10.91 seconds set by Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie 12 years earlier at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Okagbare also won the gold medal in the 200m, with the time of 22.25 seconds. In doing so, she became the fourth woman to win the 100m and 200m double at the Commonwealth Games.
This outstanding young lady did a lot for the Nigerian sport during 2014. Our editorial team is sure that she deserves a place in the shortlist for the 2nd Naij.com Internet Person Of the Year award.