Sunday, 04 April 2010 Okagbare impresses with Long Jump/100m double at Texas Relays
Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria sails a world-leading 6.88m at the Texas Relays (Kirby Lee)
relnews Austin, USA - Blessing Okagbare continued her undefeated 2010 victory parade at the 83rd Texas Relays which ended on Saturday (3). Nigeria’s 2008 Olympic bronze medallist, the double NCAA indoor champion in the short sprint and the Long Jump, did it again here.
Okagbare, who seems to get better as the competition gets hotter, likes to get things over in a hurry. On Friday she got up early to run at 9:30 and help her University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) 4x100m team qualify for Saturday’s final. Some three hours later she took four long jumps, posting a year-leading 6.88m (+1.9) on her second attempt. Then, knowing nobody was going to come close, she went back to her hotel room to rest.
It was a trade-off. Yes, she was jumping so well that she might have reached one of her goals, a 7-metre long jump. But, “I just need to save some energy,” she said, knowing that she had a stressful 200m coming up on the morrow.
She started at 14:10 Saturday afternoon, helping UTEP finish third in the 4x100 in a creditable 44.54. Two hours later, in the invitation 100m, she blasted away from a good field to win in a slightly wind-aided 11.10 (+2.3), beating 2009 NCAA 100 champion Alexandria Anderson by a clear metre and a half.
Okagbare, who won’t be 23 until October, has current PBs of 11.16 and 6.91m. It’s hard to believe they will last out the year.
There was plenty of speed on hand in addition to Okagbare’s. A good deal of it came from Texas A&M’s sprint corps, both male and female.
Item: Gabrielle “Gabby” Mayo won her second straight University 100m title, equaling her 11.13 of a year ago. She also anchored A&M’s stunning 42.56 win in the 4x100 Relay, a time which would have won a bronze medal in Berlin at the IAAF World Championships last August.
Item: Another Texas A&M quartet (sans Mayo) won the women’s 4x200m Relay in the excellent time of 1:31.41. Not to be outdone, the Aggie men won their 4x200m in an equally brilliant 1:20.61.
Item: Natasha Ruddick (JAM) improved her PB in the 100m Hurdles from 13.15 to 12.97, with a legal wind of +1.5.
Item: Gerald Phiri (ZAM) won the university men’s 100m in 10.17 (+0.6).
Item: In terms of sheer, sustained speed, the men’s 4x400m relay team took the prize. In the final race of the four-day festival, Texas A&M’s Demetrius Pinder, 46.2; Curtis Mitchell, 44.9; Bryan Miller, 45.7; and Tabari Henry (ISV), 44.8, posted a world-leading 3:01.55. Not far behind them were Baylor, in 3:02.70, and Southern California, in 3:03.26. And it’s only April 4!
There was plenty of speed in the open events, too. Ivory Williams won the invitational 100m in a wind-aided 9.88, a good metre ahead of Mark Jelks’ 9.99. In the invitational 110m Hurdles, world champion Ryan Brathwaite (BAR) won in 13.33w.
Next to Ms. Okagbare’s long jump, the best field event was Andre Manson’s in the High Jump. On his home turf, where he PB’d a year ago at 2.35m, the 1.96m tall Texas native cleared 2.31m, and, almost hubristically, asked for… 2.37m. What’s more, his first attempt was very close to a clearance.
Eaton tallies windy 8310 in the Decathlon
Just as interesting, in terms of 2012, was the decathlon (31 March/1 April). Oregon senior Ashton Eaton, who broke the World record for the Heptathlon indoors last month, improved his decathlon PB from 8,241w to an even windier 8,310. It was so windy, in fact, that it probably hurt him at least as much as it helped.
Certainly the 4.9 m/s “aiding” wind didn’t help him in the hurdles, where he hit a lot of barriers with his lead leg. Adjusting his steps in the Long Jump and Pole Vault was a constant concern, and his 47.06 400m was accomplished despite a wind-hindered first 200 a full two seconds slower than usual.
All in all – although it may go down in the record books as “8310w” – it’s as good as any legit 8310 you’ll ever see. His performances: 10.35 (+3.4); 7.88m (+3.0); 12.63m; 2.02m; 47.06; 13.85 (+4.9); 43.71m; 4.60m; 52.19m; 4:41.43.
Eaton’s co-ed University of Oregon teammate, Brianne Theisen (CAN) won the heptathlon easily with a score of 5942.
Click here for full results
http://www.texassports.com/livestats/tex-relays/
James Dunaway for the IAAF
Keep working hard!