Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria cruised to a new personal best time of 10.93 to win her 1st round heat and qualified for the women's 100m semi-final here at the Olympic Stadium in London this afternoon on a day when other Nigerian athletes did not fare too well.
Okagbare led compatriot Gloria Asumnu, who also qualified for the semis after coming through in a season's best 11.13secs for third place in her heat. However, Oludamola Osayomi failed to qualify as the 11.36 secs clocking from her heat was not enough to carry her through to the next round.
After the race, Okagbare said she's excited to be at the London 2012 Olympic Games and that the “track is amazing and so fast”
“I'm just excited. I'm hoping everything will fall in place. Gold is anybody's and I'm going to do my best,” she added.
When asked about her new hairstyle, Okagbare says she “wanted to try something different. People seem to like it.”
In the women's 400m, African Championships silver medallist, Regina George won her heat in 51.24secs to qualify for the Semi-final. Despite fading badly in the latter stages of her heat, Omolara Omotosho with 52.11secs joined George in tomorrow's semis as one of the fastest losers.
Also in the men's 400m hurdles, African Champion Amaechi Morton qualified for the semi-finals finishing third in his heat in 49.34 secs.
Commenting on his performance, Amaechi Morton said: “I felt good, I felt strong. I lost momentum when I hit the hurdle, feeling good though. I look forward to tomorrow (for the semifinals).”
“I had a good (African) championships, this is my first race since then. So far it's fair to say it's a good season,” he added.
Unlike other events that had been played out in front of empty stadia since the start of the Games last week, the Olympic Stadium was full for the first morning session of Athletics today.
IAAF President Lamine Diack said this morning: “It was wonderful to arrive at the Olympic Games this morning and see a totally packed stadium for the first session of athletics.
“I do not remember the last time this happened and it shows the great affection Britain has for our sport. LOCOG has done a great job and we are excited about the rest of the athletics programme, since the athletes will definitely be inspired by crowds like this.”
?