HEARTY CHEERS TO TOBI AMUSAN! 

In a night of glory and speed, Tobi Amusan put Nigeria on the athletic global map in Oregon, United States 

As the Nigerian anthem played on Sunday night in Oregon for the very first time since the country started participating in World Athletics Championships, Oluwatobiloba (Tobi) Amusan could not hold back tears of joy on the podium. It was an emotional moment she shared with millions of Nigerians back home. Amusan had won the gold medal in 100 metres hurdles and broke the world record twice within one night. Her unprecedented feats were products of hard work and consistent pursuit of excellence in her chosen field of sports. 

While Nigerians have been congratulating themselves on Amusan’s victory, it is worth reflecting on how we have neglected the sporting sector in our country. For instance, majority of those who head most of the sporting associations are more interested in pecuniary gains and other individual perks than pursuing the interest of the athletes and what their success can translate for the country. And because of their reputation for not doing things in the proper ways, it is possible that the potential of Amusan might have been blighted had she remained in this environment after her talent had been spotted. While we therefore congratulate Amusan, we must also impress on the authorities the need to develop and nurture local talents in Nigeria. 

To track and field aficionados, Amusan’s achievements didn’t come as a surprise. She has been knocking on the doors of success over the years through hard work. She gave indication of what to expect when in the heat of the women’s 100 metres hurdles on Saturday morning, ran an incredible 12.40 seconds to set a new African record and Nigeria’s fastest time in the history of the competition. The petite 25-year-old Nigerian hurdler’s time was two hundredth of a second faster than the 12.44 seconds Glory Alozie ran to win a silver medal in the World Championships 23 years ago in Seville, Spain. It was also the first time any athlete was running such an incredible time in the first-round heat of the women’s 100m hurdles. That automatically put her in the semifinal and in reckoning for more surprises. 

Three years ago, at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Amusan was disappointed with her fourth position in the final. Before Doha, she had broken the African Games record twice in 2019 in Rabat, Morocco. She ran 12.69 seconds to win her semifinal heat before running a hundredth of a second faster in the final to win the gold. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo postponed to 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic, fate played another joke on the Nigerian hurdler, finishing outside the podium again in fourth place. It was after this that she swept all things aside and began strategising on how to end this perennial fourth spot. 

Today, Amusan has smashed four of the records set by Glory Alozie in Nigeria and on the continent before switching nationality to Spain after the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. The University of Texas at El Paso graduate started with Alozie’s 12.74 seconds African Games record set in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1999. Next was the 12.68 seconds Alozie ran twice to win a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics which made her the fastest Nigerian in the history of the quadrennial event. Amusan smashed that in 2021 in Tokyo with her 12.60 seconds performance while placing fourth. The reigning Commonwealth Games champion has also consigned to history the 12.44 seconds Alozie ran at the Monaco Diamond League in 1998.  

It is remarkable that Jamaican Usain Bolt, the world record holder in the men’s 100 metres and 200 metres, was amongst the first set of people to congratulate Amusan who has demonstrated the Nigerian spirit of resilience in the face of daunting odds. We congratulate her.