“TOBI!” as Usain Bolt hailed her in his tweet celebrating her victory, reminds us of L’Tric & Miles Graham’s song – She Is Gold – “Don’t get me wrong I love my brothers, but my sister she is gold”! Our golden girl, Oluwatobiloba Ayomide “Tobi” Amusan has literally conquered the world, and brought to the sport a record, to the continent glory, and to Nigeria GOLD!
Tobi Amusan broke the 100m hurdles world record with a spectacular 12.12 seconds and went ahead to prove her mettle with another (+2.5) wind-assisted 12.06 seconds bringing Nigeria Gold at the 2022 World Athletic Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA.
25 years old Tobi is the last of three children born in Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria to Mr and Mrs Amusan, who are school teachers. The registrar of her old high school – Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School, Ijebu Ode – Mr Adeeko Lateef commented on her recent achievement: “Tobi’s feat put the school’s name on the global map of the world. She finished from the school in 2011 and was part of our relay team back then. She was a quiet girl who always kept to herself but on Monday we had to join the rest of the town in celebrating her feat. (sic)”
As an athlete representing Nigeria in the 100-metre hurdle and as a sprinter, Tobi Amusan won silver at the 2013 African Youth Championship in Warri, Nigeria; Gold at the 100-metre hurdles from the 2015 African Junior Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Gold at the All-Afric Games in 2015; was champion in 2018 at the Commonwealth Games; and won 100-metre hurdles trophy at the Diamond League in 2021 at Zurich, where she broke the African record.
In a congratulatory message to Tobi, a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, the President’s statement was that “The legendary career and achievements of Tobi Amusan will continue to inspire the upcoming generations of Nigerian athletes to achieve spectacular success… who in one night stunned the athletics world with her superlative and stellar performance”.
Our representatives at the event went on to delight us as long jumper Ese Brume also took home the Silver medal leaping over 7.02m. Team Nigeria on Sunday ended their campaign at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, the United States, in 13th place out of 43 countries that participated. These culminated in Nigeria finishing at 13th place overall in the competition, and 3rd place in Africa.
