Okagbare breaks African record in the 200m in Texas

- Blessing Okagbare breaks 200m African record in the United States
- The 26-year-old has been Nigeria's sprint queen in the past few years
- Okagbare holds the national record in the 100m and 200m respectively

Nigeria sprint queen Blessing Okagbare broke the African record in the 200m with a time of 22.04secs at the Wes Kittley Invitational Track and Field Meet at the Abilene Christian University.

The Common Wealth Champion erased the 22-year-old previous African record of 22.07secs set by former African champion Mary Onyali at a Meet in Switzerland in 1996. Cierra White placed second behind Okagbare with a time of 22.26 secs while Natasha McDonald settled for third in 24.23secs.

Nigeria Okagbare's time also becomes the new national record in the 200m breaking her previous personal best of 22.23 set at the 2014 Eugene Diamond League.

With her latest exploit, Okagbare now holds the Nigerian records in the women’s 100m (10.79secs) and 200m.

The United States based athlete did not compete in the indoor season which started in January, but was victorious in the Wes Kittley Invitational which was her first competition in the 2018 season.

The 26-year-old is one of the 37 athletes listed by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria to participate at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, which begins on April 4.