Putting Naija on the Map
Tobi Amusan has been one of the most consistent Nigerian athletes in recent years. Her improvement in every tournament has been remarkable.
In the 2022 World Athletics Championships, the world stood still as Tobi Amusan won a gold medal and got recognised as one of the best hurdle sprinters in the history of the sport. She absolutely shattered three different records at the championships held in Eugene Oregon, U.S.A.
In her first 10mm hurdle heats at the championships, Tobi broke the previous African record and set a new one after she ran a staggering 12.40secs to finish first and qualify for the next round. In the Semi-finals heat 1 for the 100m hurdles, she came up against the world record holder Kendra Harrison, Team GB’s Cindy Sember, and Jamaica’s Danielle Williams.
Tobi went ahead to break the world record and set a new world record after running a blistering time of 12.12 secs to absolutely ‘damage’ Kendra Harrison’s 6-year record of 12.20 secs.
She qualified for the finals and was up against three talented women including; Jamaica’s Britany Anderson and Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn. Tobi did the unthinkable yet again by sprinting 12.06 secs to clinch the gold medal and also breaking her newly set record.
Unfortunately, the new time wasn’t accepted as the new world record due to some technicalities with the wind, notwithstanding, she is the current fastest 100m hurdles women sprinter in the world and she is also the fastest 100m hurdles women sprinter in the history of the game.
Tobi was gifted a whopping 100,000 US Dollars for breaking the world record. She is also expected to be awarded another 70,000 US Dollars for clinching the gold medal title in the final race.
Tobi Amusan became the first Nigerian athlete in history to set a world record in any event. Also, for the first time since the year 2000, the Nigerian anthem was played on the podium of a senior championship; it was quite an emotional moment for her and also for Nigerian sport-lovers.
Though the Nigerian 4x100m women’s team didn’t make it to the podium after finishing fourth in the finals, however, they broke the African record for 4x100m after running a blistering 42.22 secs. The previous record was 41.39secs and it had been standing for 30 years until that race. The women in the team are Joy-Udo Gabriel, Favor Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, and Grace Nwokocha.
Nigerian long jumper athlete Ese Brume also won a silver medal at the World Athletics championships after narrowly missing out on the gold to her German opponent.
#Sport is a segment that keeps you abreast of everything happening in the world of sport, shares facts, and sometimes also takes you down memory lane to relive some unforgettable sporting moments. In this edition, Tobi Amusan making history at the World Athletics Championships
