Duro Ikhazuagbe
Nigeria’s world record holder in the women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, last night won the event for the third time at the finals of the Wanda Diamond League in Eugene, Oregon, USA.
Amusan ran a Season Best 12.33secs to claim the title on the same ground she set the 12.12secs world record last year when Oregon hosted the World Athletics Championship.
Amusan got out of the block strong and held off the strong field over the final hurdles, crossing the finish line in a season best time.
Her eternal rivals in the event, Puerto Rican Jasmine Camacho-Quinn placed second behind Amusan in 12.38, while American Kendra Harrison, the former world record holder was third in 12.44.
The victory has completely wiped the tears of the Nigerian petit sprint hurdler fondly called ‘Tobi Express’ back home. It was a fittingly consolation for Amusan who was distracted from defending her World Championship gold medal in Budapest last month due to her earlier suspension by Athletic Integrity Unit (AIU) due to three whereabouts failures for dope tests.
Although she was left off the hook to participate in the Budapest 2023 at the last minute, Amusan didn’t recover on time to show the world her feat in Oregon 2022 was no fluke.
Amun is now the second woman in Diamond League history after Dawn Nelson-Harper to win a hat-trick of 100m hurdles titles
With this third Damond League title under her belt, the stage appears set for Nigeria’s first individual gold medal from the sprint hurdle at next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Interestingly, the 30-day period of appeal opened to the AIU to contest World Athletics’ lifting of the provisional ban on Amusan lapsed on Saturday with no sign of the Nigerian going through another waiting period.
Last August when the provisional suspension was clamped on her was lifted, AIU insisted it was disappointed and vowed to review the reasoning in detail before deciding whether to exercise its right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) within the applicable deadline.
AIU Head, Brett Clothier indicated the Monaco-based body was going to appeal.
But the period allowed for the appeal lapsed on Saturday with no clearly sign of any appeal by AIU.
David Howman also told reporters at the last World Athletics Championship in Budapest: “We have some concern that it might set a precedent which will be difficult for future cases.”
