ASABA, Nigeria, September 14 — The southeast Nigeria’s state of Delta honoured Blessing Okagbare as the state’ s Youths’ Ambassador, for making the country proud at the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships.
The championships held in Moscow, Russia, from August 10 to 18.
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan also announced a 16,000 USD (Sh1,402,400) in cash reward to the athlete and an annual 120,000 USD (Sh10,518,000) training grant to her for the next three years, ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Okagbare won silver and bronze medals in long jump and the 200 meters, respectively, at the championships.
The governor also announced that the state government would reward the athlete with parcels of land in Asaba, the state capital.
Daniel Esebiminor, the coach who discovered her, and Gabriel Okon, the athlete’ s coach at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), got cash rewards of 15,000 dollars each.
The governor also announced a 20,000 dollars reward for Okagbare’ s international coach, John Smith, for his role in her success at the games.
He noted that youths in the state were talented in sports, adding that if well harnessed, could earn them an income and also make the state proud.
Uduaghan tasked the state’ s Sports Commission to intensify efforts and identify at least three athletes, to be trained for the 2016 Olympics.
