Former national track queen, Oludamola Osayomi says she is in good shape to reclaim the Mobil 100m title she lost last year to Blessing Okagbare at the 21st Mobil/NNPC Nigeria Track and Field Championships starting this Thursday at the U.J Esuene stadium in Calabar, Cross River State.
Osayomi ran a new championships record time of 11.08 to win both the title and the N1m Jackpot prize in 2008 but was denied the chance of becoming the fourth woman to successfully defend the sprint title by Okagbare who ran 11.16 to win the title last year.
Okagbare, Nigeria's leading sprinter so far this season with 11.21 (holds a wind-aided 10.98 which she ran to win the National Collegiate of Athletics Associations (NCAA ) Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon penultimate weekend), arrived in Nigeria weekend for the championships.
The 2010 NCAA 100m Champion is however favoured to retain her title and will join such sprinters as Mary Onyali who won between 1991 and 1996, Endurance Ojokolo who won in 1997,1998 and 1999 as well as in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and Gloria Kemasuode who was champion in 2006 and 2007 who have successfully defended their titles.
Okagbare is also expected to win the long jump title where she is the national and African leader so far this term at 6.88m for an unprecendented fourth consecutive time.
Her biggest competitior is expected to be Spain-based Comfort Onyali whose pre-championship personal best of 6.62m should guarantee her the silver medal.
Meanwhile a new winner is expected to emerge in the women's 100m hurdles following the suspension of reigning champion,Toyin Augustus by the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the IAAF for doping offences.
Augustus, who won in 2007, 2008 and 2009 failed a drug test last year at the 12th IAAF Wolrd Championships in Athletics held in Berlin, Germany and had been banned for two years.
Expected to battle for the vacant title are two USA-based athletes, Seun Adigun and Jessica Ohanaja.
On current form, Adigun, the Kinesiology graduate from University of Houston in Texas, USA is favoured to win her first national title in only her second year of dorning Nigeria's green and white colours.
She holds the pre-championships' season best of 13.16 seconds.
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