Her hair turned golden only for these Commonwealth Games from the dark mop she’s always had, Blessing Okagbare allowed the loosely bunched-back tresses to trail her like a raiding mare’s tail as she stomped the Hampden Park track to claim a 100-200 double in women’s sprints at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday.

A world-class sprinter, also an Olympic long jump silver medallist from Beijing, the Nigerian, who had set a 100m Games record of 10.85s, completed a double on Thursday evening winning the 200 in 22.25s.

The recently engaged star from Africa carries the burden of her nation’s expectations on her strong cross-trainer handgrip like shoulders. On Thursday she beat a field boasting of Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown, and suddenly Nigeria who are pushing for a total of dozen medals, have found their voice, now expecting her to push up a 4×100 relay team, currently 8th in standing to medal contention.

“She comes from Delta state, where all the legendary Nigerian footballers come from. It’s difficult to get noticed there if you don’t play football. But she moved away from soccer to jumps and sprints and whole of Nigeria is beginning to wake up to realise what a star they have in their midsts,” says Pat Obe, a leading African athletics commentator, who has watched Blessing over the years and seen how Nigeria saw the 2012 Olympics as a medal disaster, failing to win any.

“This is her return into reckoning after what happened at London where she failed (to win a medal) despite making the final,” Obe says, adding that Glasgow and the spotlight that can only come with being the 100m champ will help erase some of the post-2012 downers.

Blessing could have gone for a second Games record, if it hadn’t been for the scheduling that made her run the semis in the morning and finals the same evening. A normally reserved athlete, who though can take up the cudgels when required (as she did when Nigerian funding had dried up before London) she voiced her disappointment at the scheduling, even as she promised to return to run the anchor leg and challenge the Jamaicans and the English.

Athletics’ blue riband 100m in men has been talked about more for Usain Bolt not competing, even taking in the wobble of him reportedly calling the CWG ‘s**t’ though he’s denied it since. In all the outrage and denial, was lost the fact that English Adam Gemili, had issued a warning to Jamaican sprinters that the Briton was hitting his strides heading into the Worlds.

A former Chelsea youth footballer, Gemili wedged himself between the two Jamaicans, but Blessing was adamant she would not allow the tiger-striped-and-green sprinters Veronica Campbell-Brown and Kerron Stewart to elude her a double.

“She could change athletics in Nigeria completely, and also what Delta state kids play. Till now it’s football, but these were great scenes from Hampden Park beamed back home. Though she’s been thereabouts on world’s sprinting, she needed this win,” Obe said.

Blessing had skipped the long jump as it was clustered around her 200m races, Obe revealed. Of her hair, which went blond only for this meet, he added: “It was her wings. And it looked good with green.”