Team Nigeria shines at World Athletics Championship, sets new world, African records, as Amusan wins gold, Brume gets silver

Team Nigeria at the World Athletics Championship in Oregon, United States, left it till the last day to register in medals table, and break new world and African records, as the female athletes kicked off their medal haul in style.

Early Sunday morning, Nigerian time, the country’s representative at the women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, won the gold medal in what would have been officially recorded as another new world record set by her but for the wind-assisted feat.

Amusan also becomes the first Nigerian to set a world athletics record.

In the final of the race, on Sunday, Amusan clocked an astonishing 12.06 seconds to cross the finish at Hayward Field.

Amusan had returned a time of 12.12 seconds in the semi-finals of the competition. That time smashed the previous best mark of 12.20 seconds held by United States’ Keni Harrison in 2016.

Amusan set two world records at the world athletics tourney in under a week.

Jamaica’s Britany Anderson took silver in 12.23sec, while Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico claimed bronze in 12.23.

Reacting after the race, Amusan said: “Honestly, I believe in my abilities but I was not expecting a world record at these championships.

“The goal is always just to execute well and get the win. So the world record is a bonus. I knew I had it in me but I could not believe it when I saw it on the screen after the semis.

“Before the final, I just tried to stay calm and to do my best. I took a deep breath knowing that I have some goal to accomplish and it worked pretty good. I knew it was very fast but not this fast.”

Harrison had been left in Amusan’s slipstream in the semi, and was again shown a clean pair of heels by the Nigerian in the final.

Amusan got off to a scorching start and was smoothly into her stride after the first hurdle, building a clear lead and then pulling away ahead of Anderson and the fast-closing Camacho-Quinn.

Meanwhile, for winning and breaking the world record at the World Athletics Championship in the United States, Amusan is set to receive about $100,000 as prize money, including $50, 000 for records broken, from the IAAF, the event’s organisers.

The athlete is now sure medal hopeful for Nigeria in the sprints ahead of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom from Thursday, July 28.

She is the defending champion in the 100m women’s event.

Also, female Long Jumper, Ese Brume leapt over 7.02 metres, to clinch silver medal at the World Athletics Championship in Oregon, behind rival Maliaka Mihambo of Germany who jumped 7.12 metres for the Gold, while Brazil’s Oro Melo took the Bronze with 6.89 metres jump.

Earlier, in the championships, Team Nigeria in the 4x100m relay event though narrowly missing out on the medals’ podium, set for themselves a new African record of 42.22s to break the old time of 42.37s.

The team consists of Joy Udo-Gabriel, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha finished fourth in the final.

Team Nigeria finished 4th in the race behind the USA, Jamaica and Germany.

It would be recalled that the African record was set in 1992 and held by another Nigerian relay team comprising; Beatrice Utondu, Mary Onyali, Christy Opara and Faith Idehen.