Blessing Okagbare

About Blessing Okagbare

Blessing Okagbare-Otegheri (born 9 October 1988) is a former Nigerian track and field athlete who specialized in Long jump and sprints. She is an Olympic and World Championships medalist in the long jump, and a world medalist in the 200 meters. She also holds the Women's 100 meters Commonwealth Games record for the fastest time at 10.85 seconds. She is currently serving a 10 year ban for breaching multiple World Athletics anti-doping rules. Her ban expires 30 July 2031.[2]

Her 100 m best of 10.79 made her the African record holder for the event until it was eclipsed by Murielle Ahouré in 2016. On June 17, 2021 Okagbare ran a wind-aided 10.63 100 m.[3] She was the African record holder over the 200m with a time of 22.04 seconds in 2018, thus making her the second-fastest African female athlete over the 200m behind Christine Mboma who ran an African record of 21.78 seconds in 2021. She was the African 100 m and long jump champion in 2010. She has also won medals at the All-Africa Games, IAAF Continental Cup and World Relays.

Okagbare was suspended after failing a drugs test on 31 July 2021 during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[4] On 18 February 2022 it was announced that she had been banned from athletics for a period of 10 years commencing 30 July 2021 for multiple breaches of World Athletics Anti-Doping rules.[2] Following a hearing at the Athletics Integrity Unit that found her to have taken both human growth hormone and EPO over an extended period, and to have failed to co-operate with the investigation, Okagbare was banned for ten years, effectively ending her athletics career in disgrace.[5]