SPECIAL EDITION: FROM GORY TO GLORY: TOBI AMUSAN IN RETROSPECT

GOLDEN TOBI AMUSAN: BREAKS AND SETS WORLD RECORDS IN 11-MONTHS INTERVAL

It is a sigh of victory, Amusan opens her Golden era at Zurich in September 2021

Almost prophetic,the tweets from Tobi Amusan in November 2016  on her handle where she tweeted: “Unknown now but soon I will be unforgettable, I will persist until I succeed” signifies her relentless determination to achieve in the course of her career and patriotism. Many of the rivals of the world best athlete in hurdles today - who has just moved from grass to grace - must have discarded it as a wishful thought by an emerging athlete. 

Almost seven years later, the Nigerian athlete's dream has not only come to fruition but she has written her name in gold forever.

After fourth-placed finish at both the 2019 World Athletics Championships and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,  Amusan’s persistence has finally seen her engrave her name into the track and field record books.

However, it always seemed as if the odds were stacked against her running career from the beginning. “My parents are both teachers, they are strict disciplinarians,” Amusan told BBC Sport Africa.

“When you grow up in such a family, they feel you should focus on school. And being a female, they think you are going to go astray, lose focus and all of that.

“But because my mum saw what I didn’t see in myself, she felt she could give me a chance. And she kept telling me not to disappoint her.

“My mum would tell my dad I was going to church while I sneaked to practice or tell him I was going to a school debate while I went to an out-of-state competition. That’s where it all started.

“My dad got really mad one time when he found out I was running. He burnt all my training gear and told my mum that’s the last time he wanted to see me in a stadium.”

“My victory at Oregon has not sunk in yet, maybe the magnitude of what just happened will hit me later,” she said.

“I go out there and put 100 per cent in every championship and it’s just never enough. Every time it’s a fourth-place finish.

“Then this time my 100 per cent is not only a gold medal but a world record. Trusting myself just made everything easier. I’m thankful to the man above for keeping me healthy. When God says it’s your time, it’s your time.”

Her win, which is Nigeria’s first gold at such an event was met with joy, with congratulations pouring in from well-meaning Nigerians.

(Adapted from www.thisdaylive.com)

Tobi Amusan, a proud Nigerian athlete that revamped the image of her country among comity of nations

Report of Amusan's Record Breaking spree at Zurich 2021 where she bagged a Diamond League Trophy ( By Joseph Faulkner)

Tobi Amusan became the first Nigerian to win a Diamond League trophy after she set a new African Record of 12.42s to clinch the win in the women’s 100m Hurdles at Zurich.

The feat surpasses the former African record of 12.44s by Gloria Alozie at 1998 women 100m Hurdles at the Monte Carlo Herculis-Zepter, Monaco.

”It’s great, it is a great feeling. Looking back, I did not win a medal at the Olympics. It was a very challenging time for me afterwards, but I never gave up, and I came out here and, I was like if I did not get a medal in Tokyo, the least I can do is get a Diamond League Trophy – and I just did that!

No Nigerian athlete has been able to win the prestigious diamond league trophy in any of the disciplines until Amusan won in Zurich.

Report on her World Record Breaking spree within a fortnight in 2022 (Adapted from olympic.com)

Just within 2-weeks interval, Tobi Amusan, the Nigerian athelete from Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State, Nigeria made history by consecutively bagging  Gold medals and setting world-records in two major World-class competitions. One is that which was the 2022 World Athletics Championships held in Eugene, Oregon, Western U.S. between July 15th and 24th 2022 and the just concluded commonwealth games held at Birmingham, West-midlands, England, United Kingdom between 28th July to 8th August 2022.

Amusan captured while basking in the euphoria of victory and glory!

The new world-record holder and world champion in the women's 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan won two gold medals in the morning session of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on the last day of the athletics competition on Sunday (7th August).

In a new Games' record of 12.30s, the Nigerian broke the mark set 16 years ago and defended her Commonwealth Games title from Gold Coast 2018 while she was at it. She also claimed a second gold in the women's 4x100m in the last event of the morning session.

"There's 200 million people in Nigeria and to be one of those being out here and putting the nation on the world map is a privilege," Amusan said post race.

It's been quite the few weeks for the 25-year-old who became the first Nigerian world champion at the World Athletics Championships. Not only that, she claimed a new world record of 12.12s in the semi-finals of the event in the US last month.

No doubt, Nigeria has produced great Athlete in all kind of sports and games but Amusan is an enigmatic one who has forced the world to stand still listening to the Nigerian anthem in places you can least expect. In retrospect, she did at Zurich and Oregon, USA and repeated same at the homeland of Nigeria's colonialist homeland at Birmingham, England. What a great heroine to behold.