Blessing Okagbare and 10 other athletes have been cleared by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) to compete in the athletics event of the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Okagbare who is the reigning 100/200m Nigerian record holder will compete in the women’s 100m heat on Friday.
The clearance follows the disqualification of 10 track and field athletes that were earlier billed to represent Nigeria at the rescheduled Games in Tokyo.
Those who were cleared alongside Okagbare to contest are sprint hurdler, Tobiloba Amusan who is ranked number four in the 100m hurdles; long jumper Ese Brume who tops the world list in her event coming to the games and Grace Nwokocha, who clocked 11.09 seconds in March at the MOC Grand Prix in Lagos to cement her qualification for the Tokyo Games. Others are Divine Oduduru, Enoch Adegoke and Ushoritse Itshekiri.
Also, Shot putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi who participated in the event’s final at the World Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar in 2019 is cleared to compete.
In the same vein, the 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Ifeanyi Ojeli, Nataniel Samson, Imaobong Nse Uko, and Patience Okon-George were cleared to compete and will be in action tomorrow in the first semifinal heat.
