Oluwatobiloba Ayomide “Tobi” Amusan was born 23 April 1997 and is a Nigerian track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles and also competes as a sprinter. She is the 2018 Commonwealth and 2019 African champion in the event. She is also a two-time African Games champion.
Career
Amusan showed athletic potential from an early age. She was a silver medallist at the 2013 African Youth Championships in Warri. She also claimed gold in the 100 metres hurdles at the 2015 African Junior Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa. In 2015, while making her All-Africa Games debut as an eighteen-year-old, she won the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles.
Read more about Oluwatobiloba Ayomide Amusan
A Track Record of Tobi
2016
In 2016, as a freshman for The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Amusan became the second athlete for the university to be named C-USA Female Track athlete of the Year since UTEP joined C-USA. She was the gold medallist in both the 100 mH and the 200 m. She also claimed a silver in the long jump at the C-USA Championships. Amusan first broke the 13 s barrier in the hurdles with a time of 12.83 s at the El Paso UTEP Invitational. This eclipsed Kim Turner’s 100 mH UTEP record which had stood for 33 years. She was runner-up at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100 mH. She ran a windy 12.79 s behind Kentucky’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn. Amusan also competed at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz. Despite running her second-fastest time ever, she placed fifth in the final. She went on to represent Nigeria at the Rio Olympic Games, reaching the semifinals of the 100 mH.
2017
In her first outdoor race of 2017, she ran a then lifetime best and UTEP record of 12.63 s in the 100 metres hurdles. She was the C-USA champion in her specialist event and also the runner up in the 200 metres. At the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships, there was a reversal of finishes in the 100 metres hurdles. In a dramatic race, Amusan claimed the title ahead of Camacho-Quinn who was the champion the previous year. She did this in a personal record time of 12.57 s. She also represented Nigeria at the World Championships in London later in the year.
2018
She ran a personal best of 7.89 s in the 60 metres hurdles at the start of her 2018 season. She went on to represent her country at the Birmingham World Indoor Championships reaching the final of the 60 metres hurdles.
At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, 2015 World Champion, Danielle Williams seemed to be the favourite to take the title in the absence of Sally Pearson. In the final, however, Amusan moved ahead of her competitors and won the race by a clear metre ahead of Williams. She also won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100 m relay with her teammates, Joy Udo-Gabriel, Blessing Okagbare and Rosemary Chukwuma. Later in the year, she won her first African Championships title in her specialist event at the Asaba African Championships. She also claimed a gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay at the championships.
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2019
On October 5, 2019, at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, she ran a personal best of 12.48 s during the 100 metres hurdles qualifying rounds. In the semi-finals the following day, she equalled this personal best before placing 4th a few hours later in the final with 12.49 s.
National titles
NCAA Division I Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships
100 m hurdles: 2017
Personal bests
Outdoor
100 metres: 11.31 (2018)
150 metres: 18.68 (2014)
200 metres: 22.92 (2017)
300 metres: 40.90 (2014)
400 metres: 60.48 (2017)
100 metres hurdles: 12.49 (2019)
Long jump: 6.07 m (2016)
4 × 100 metres relay: 42.75 (2018)
4 × 400 metres relay: 3:41.68 (2017)
Indoor
60 metres: 7.41 (2019)
200 metres: 23.35 (2017)
60 metres hurdles: 7.89 (2018)
Long jump: 6.15 m (2017)
Sources:
Wikipedia
Okayafrica
Featured Image Source: The Guardian NG
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