WORLD ATHLETICS: Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan wins women’s 100 meters gold medal in Oregon
By ABIRHIRE THOMAS and BENEDICT OBANYAGBON
World 100 meters hurdles record holder, Tobi Amusan, in the early hours of Monday (Sunday night in Oregon), won the women’s 100 meters hurdles gold at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
She did it by going faster than the 12.12s world record time she ran in the semi-finals, but her 12.06s in the final wasn’t recognised as a world record owing to the over 2m/s wind speed.
Ese Brume also clinched silver the same night.
Amusan had blitzed to a world record 12.12s in the semi-finals but obliterated that mark with a superb 12.06s to become the first Nigerian to win gold in the history of the World Athletics Championships.
Nigeria had won a total of nine medals, comprising four silver and five bronze before Amusan destroyed a strong field in the final.
Three years ago, Amusan had finished fourth in Doha, Qatar.
She had earlier taken eight hundredths of a second off American Keni Harrison‘s world record from 2016. Amusan’s previous personal best before the semi-final was 12.40, set in the first round on Saturday in Oregon.
