JUST IN: Okagbare, Nwokocha into 100m semis as Nigeria begins medal chase in Tokyo Olympics track

Team Nigeria started their medal chase in the athletics event at the Tokyo Olympics on a bright note after Blessing Okagbare and Grace Nwokocha took to the tracks

Both athletes Friday morning qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s 100m at the ongoing Olympics.

Okagbare, who was making her fourth Olympic appearance, finished top in Heat 6 in a time of 11.05 (-0.1) seconds to reach her third consecutive Olympic semifinals.

She finished ahead of United Kingdom’s Asha Phillips who came out second in 11.31 seconds and Tynia Gaither came third in 11.34 seconds.

Read Also: Tokyo 2020 Athletics: Okagbare, Amusan, 10 other Nigerians cleared, eligible to compete

On her part, Grace Nwokocha finished third in Heat 5 with a new Personal Best of 11.00 seconds to qualify for the semi-final.

The Team Nigeria’s athletes had faced a challenging day on Thursday after 10 persons were disqualified from participating in the track & field events in Tokyo.

Okagbare would later take to her Twitter to call out the administrators at Athletics Federation of Nigeria saying, “the sport system in Nigeria is so flawed and we athletes are always at the receiving end of the damages.”

12 Nigerian athletes were however cleared and deemed eligible to compete, as Nigeria continues to hope for her first medal at the rescheduled Olympics.

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