Nigeria’s Amusan wins 100m hurdles gold and smashes the world record

Image: Punch

History was made in Oregon on Sunday as Tobi Amusan emerged as the first Nigerian athlete to win a World Athletics Championship gold. She won the medal in the women’s 100m hurdles and not just winning the race alone; she did the remarkable, she broke the world record!

She smashed the world record in a remarkable semi-final where she clocked 12.12 sec, and powered over the line at Hayward Field in 12.06sec.

However, her winning time will not be recognised as a world record due to a strong following win of 2.5 metres per second.

Amusan won gold, Britany Anderson of Jamaica went home with the silver in 12.23sec, while Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, the Olympic champion, settled for the bronze in 12.23.

Image: Vanguard

Amusan, in the semi-finals, returned a jaw-dropping world record, destroying the previous best mark of 12.20secs held by Keni Harrison of the United States in 2016.

“Honestly, I believe in my abilities, but I was not expecting a world record at these championships,” Amusan said after her final victory. “The goal is always just to execute well and get the win. So the world record is a bonus. I knew I had it in me, but I could not believe it when I saw it on the screen after the semis.

“Before the final, I just tried to stay calm and to do my best. I took a deep breath knowing that I have some goal to accomplish and it worked pretty good. I knew it was very fast but not this fast.”


   

Harrison had been left in Amusan’s slipstream in the semi and was again shown a clean pair of heels by the Nigerian in the final.

Amusan got off to a hot start and was smoothly into her stride after the first hurdle, maintaining a clear lead and then pulling away ahead of Anderson and the fast-closing Camacho-Quinn.

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