*AFN President congratulates Amusan on new 100m hurdles African Record
Sprint hurdler Tobiloba Amusan and sprinter Raymond Ekevwo have arrived Nigeria for the 2022 Nigeria Athletics Championships scheduled to hold between June 24 and 26 in Benin City.
The duo arrived yesterday aboard Qatar Airways and Royal Air Maroc respectively.
Amusan improved her African 100m hurdles record (12.42) by 0.02 to 12.41 on her way to winning the event at the Diamond League meeting in Paris, France on Saturday.
The 25-year-old will be bidding to successfully defend her Nigerian 100m hurdles title and pick the event’s ticket to represent Nigeria at both the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA.
Amusan will also be seeking to break the 12.63 secs Nigeria Championships record set by Angela Atede in Lagos in 1997.
Ekevwo on his part came second at the World Athletics Continental silver tour meeting, the Meeting De Madrid 2022, running 10.11 seconds in the 100m event.
The 23-year-old will be seeking for his first national 100m title and a return ticket to the World Athletics Championships after making his debut in 2019 in Doha Qatar.
He will also be keen to punch his ticket to his first Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) President, Tonobok Okowa, says sprint hurdler Tobiloba Amusan’s African record setting run in the 100m hurdles at the Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday night has given Nigeria hope of challenging for a first ever gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon next month.
“Congratulations to Tobi who has continued to deliver for Nigeria at the top level of track and field in the world,” began Okowa.
Nigeria’s national anthem is yet to be sung at the flagship event of World Athletics, the World Championships and Tobi now looks ready to join Ese Brume, our sprinters and the relay teams in the bid to get Nigeria to the podium as world champion,” said Okowa.
Nigeria has won at least a global medal since Okowa was elected as AFN president in June last year and the trend looks set to continue in Oregon.
“Ese (Brume) won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year. It was the first time since 2008 that Nigeria won a track and field medal at the quadrennial games. Tobi made history last year as the first Nigerian to win a Diamond League title and this year Ese got a silver in the long jump at the World Indoor championship, our first since Olusoji Fasuba won the 60m gold in Valencia, Spain in 2008,” concludes the AFN chief.
