Tobi Amusan made history in the women’s 100m hurdles in Oregon on Sunday, July 24, after becoming the first-ever Nigerian athlete to win a World Athletics Championship gold.
Amusan, who had obliterated the world record in an astonishing semi-final where she clocked 12.12sec, powered over the line at Hayward Field in 12.06sec.
Her winning time will not be recognised as a world record, however, due to a strong following win of 2.5 metres per second.
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Who is Tobi Amusan?
Oluwatobiloba Ayomide also known as Tobi Amusan was born on April 23, 1997 in Ijebu Ode, Ogun, Nigeria.
Educational background
She completed her secondary education while in Nigeria at Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School in Ijebu-Ode before relocating to the USA for her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
New record
Amusan won the 2022 World Athletics Championships in the 100 metres hurdles, setting a new world record of 12.12 seconds in the semifinal, then a wind-assisted 12.06 in the final. She broke the Games record twice in 2019 in Rabat, Morocco. She ran 12.69 seconds to win her semifinal heat before running a hundreth of a second faster in the final to win the gold.
Career
Amusan showed a lot of athletic potential from an early age. She was a silver medallist at the 2013 African Youth Championships in Warri. She also claimed gold in the 100 metres hurdles at the 2015 African Junior Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa.
In 2015, while making her All-Africa Games debut as an eighteen-year-old, she won the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles.
The 25-year-old Nigerian athlete was the 2018 Commonwealth and 2018 African champion and is also a two-time African Games champion in the event. She won the Diamond League Trophy in Zurich in 2021 in the 100m hurdles.
Coach
Lacena Golding-Clarke
Family
Her parents are both teachers. They set the tone for her upbringing in the Nigerian town of Ijebu Ode, where she was raised in a strict environment. “My existence revolved around school, sleeping, eating, and reading books,” Amusan recalls. “It’s the same cycle I’ve followed all my life.”