Okagbare takes blessed bronze to Nigeria

University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) Sophomore Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria is truly a blessed girl.

After failing by 0.01m to make the cut in the women's Long Jump Qualifying on Wednesday when she was beaten to the 12th position by Jamaica's Chelsea Hammod (6.60m to Okagbare's 6.59m), she must have thought her Olympics adventures was over.

But as God would have it, Blessing was reinstated to the Long Jump final after Ukrainian heptathlete Liudmyla Blonska tested positive and was thrown out of the games yesterday.

Today, Okagbare took the first medal of any kind for Nigeria at the Beijing Olympic Games. A huge 6.91m personal best in her first jump was enough to give the Nigerian queen a deserved Bronze medal

Higa Maurreen MAGGI of Brazil took the Gold with her first effort of 7.04m, a season's best whilst defending Olympics Long Jump champion and current Triple jump silver medalist Tatiana Lebedeva of Russia settled for Silver despite a huge 7.03m final effort.

Full RESULTS

Women's Long Jump Final:

1 Higa Maurreen Maggi (Brazil) 7.04m SB Gold

2 Tatiana Lebedeva (Russia) 7.03mSB Silver

3 Blessing Okagbare (Nigeria) 6.91m PB Bronze

Women's 4 x 100m Relay Final:

1 Russia 42.31 Gold

2 Belgium 42.54 Silver

3 Nigeria 43.04 Bronze