The duo of Blessing Okagbare and Divine Oduduru have been shortlisted to compete at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial meet in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday, July 9, 2019. Both Nigerians were listed on the provisional list released by the organizers of the event on 8th July.
Okagbare will be looking to make her third consecutive win following her fascinating displays and victory streak at the Mohammed VI international athletics meeting in Rabat, Morocco and the Prefontaine Classics in Stanford, California, USA in June 2019.
Okagbare is expected to race in the women’s 200m against Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who hasn’t lost a race in the past one year and World silver medallist, Ta Lou.
Oduduru will be making his professional debut in the men’s 200m race. The NCAA Champion became Africa’s second fastest man in history with a time of 9.86s, just behind his compatriot and legend Olusoji Fasuba, who holds a record of 9.85 seconds in 100m. The Nigerian clocked this time at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships in June 2019.
Oduduru is expected to compete against world’s fastest man, Christian Coleman, 2017 World Champion, Ramil Guliyev and rising 200m sensation, Aaron Brown, at the meeting in Hungary.
Coleman, holds 200m season’s best of 19.97 seconds, which is the 9th fastest performance in 2019, while Guliyev has clocked 19.99 seconds and is the 10th fastest 200m performer.
Source:
Punchng