Michael Johnson Faces Backlash for Questioning  Amusan’s World Record 

Track legend Michael Johnson has been accused of ‘black racism’ after questioning whether Nigerian sprinter Tobi Amusan’s world record was valid. 

The 100m hurdler smashed Kendra Harrison’s 2016 world record by 0.08 seconds at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon Sunday. 

BBC pundit Johnson, who claimed four Olympic golds and eight World Championship golds in a stellar track career, was skeptical of the times clocked by Amusan and others. 

“I don’t believe 100h times are correct. World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set. And Cindy Sember quote after her PB/NR ‘I throughly I was running slow!’ All athletes looked shocked (sic).

“Heat 2 we were first shown winning time of 12.53. Few seconds later it shows 12.43. Rounding down by .01 is normal. .10 is not,” queried the legendary track king.

Amusan became world champion in an even faster 12.06secs time later in the day at Hayward Field but the time did not count toward records due to a hefty +2.5 m/s tailwind.

Johnson has been accused of being racist for casting doubt over the accuracy of Amusan’s world record time of 12.12 seconds. 

A Twitter user responded to Johnson’s comments, writing: “Michael Johnson are you naturally this dumb or do you have to put in effort?  

“Why don’t you channel your energy to recovering from your stroke you Black racist! 

“Tobi Amusan is a world record holder and there’s nothing you can do about that.”

Another said: “Just because it’s not an American WR doesn’t mean the times were incorrect,” while one added: “Did you question the record when an American break the record?”

another  Twitter user claimed Johnson might have been seeking revenge after USA were stripped of the 4x400m Olympic title in Sydney 2000 and Nigeria took gold instead. 

“The US 4x400m team that had Michael Johnson was stripped of the Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medal because Antonio Pettigrew confessed that he doped during the competition,” the Tweet read. 

“The Nigerian team was eventually awarded the gold medal. Do you understand his bitterness now?”

Johnson branded the backlash he received as ‘unacceptable’ and pointed out that he did not only question Amusan’s time. 

He wrote later on his Twitter account: “The level of dumbassery coming across my feed right now is truly staggering!  

“As a commentator my job is to comment. In questioning the times of 28 athletes (not 1 athlete) by wondering if the timing system malfunctioned. 

“I was attacked, accused of racism, and of questioning the talent of an athlete I respect and predicted to win. Unacceptable. I move on.”