Nigeria’s sprints queen, Blessing Okagbare, on Friday lost out in the women’s 200m event of the IAAF Diamond League in Doha.
It was Okagbare’s second outing of the outdoor season. She had competed at the Texas Tech Red Raider Shoot-Out last week, where she won the 200m with a time of 22.87secs.
But she could not replicate the form in the first Diamond League meeting of the season on Friday as she finished sixth in 23.15secs.
Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson won the race in 22.19secs while Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands was second in 22.45secs and Ivorian, Marie-Josee Ta Lou was third with a time of 22.77secs. Simon Facey and Veronica Campbell-Brown, both of Jamaica, were fourth and fifth in 23.00secs and 23.09secs respectively.
Meanwhile, South African 100m champion and record holder, Akani Simbine, stunned a star-studded field which included USA’s Justin Gatlin, to win the men’s 100m in Doha.
Gatlin, who is the Rio 2016 silver medallist in the event, was favoured to win the event going by his impeccable Diamond League record in the last two years. However, Simbine, who finished 5th in Rio, stormed to victory in 9.99secs.
Asafa Powell followed in a season’s Best of 10.08secs while homeboy Femi Ogunode settled for third in an SB of 10.13secs. Gatlin finished a fourth with an SB of 10.14secs, while Canada’s Andre De Grasse followed in 10.21secs.
Other events featured in Doha are 4x100m girls relay, 4x100m boys relay, shot put women, 100m girls/women, pole vault women, 60m boys/men, 800m boys/men.
The rest are high jump men, 800m regional men, 400m men, javelin throw men, 1500m men, 800m women, triple jump men, 100m hurdles women, 3000m steeplechase, 400m hurdles men and 3000m men.
The IAAF Diamond League will continue in Shanghai, China next week.
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