Tobi Amusan got her name sealed in Nigeria’s Sport Hall of Fame at the 2022 World Athletics Championships as she not only proved herself to be elite, but also pulled off an incredible feat to emerge World Champion and World Record (WR) Holder in the 100m Hurdles.
After a painful miss out on podium finishes in the both the 2019 World Championships in Doha and at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – placing 4th in both, Amusan finally got her moment as she not only finally secured her first global GOLD medal in Oregon, but also did it in record-breaking fashion.
Starting off nicely in Oregon with a new African Record of 12.40s in the heats, two days later, the Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist took things to a whole new level and delivered a massive new WR of 12.12s in the semi-final.
Without a shadow of doubt, Amusan went on to win the final, running another epic race (12.06s but with a tailwind 2.5m/s, thus doesn’t count as another WR) to be crowned World Champion in the 100m hurdles and emerge Nigeria’s first ever GOLD medallist at a World Championships.
Amusan’s GOLD medal is Africa’s 10th medal in the hurdles event at the World Championships, and it came 23 years after her compatriot Glory Alozie won Silver in the same event back in 1999.
As the countdown to the 40th anniversary of the World Athletics Championships, along with the 2023 edition, set to hold in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19th to 27th, begins, we highlighted Nigeria’s medals won at the World Championships, which first started out as a quadrennial event, but became a biennial one after the third edition held in Tokyo in 1991. Nigeria has won a total of 11 medals: two of them in the relays and nine from individual events!
