Reigning African, Commonwealth and World 100m hurdles champion, Tobi Amusan and World and Olympic long jump medalist, Ese Brume were the only Nigerian athletes who participated in the 13-leg 2022 Diamond League series which climaxed with the final in Zurich in September.
The two were among 1084 athletes from 88 countries who competed in the money spinning competiton according to the statistics released by World Athletics on its website.
Amusan participated in four of the six qualifying meetings before the final, winning once in Paris (June 18).
The petite Nigerian came second thrice viz in Doha, Qatar (May 13) behind then reigning World Record holder, USA’s Kendra Harrison; Stockholm, Sweden (June 30) and Lausanne, Switserland (August 26) behind reigning Olympic champion, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.
The 25 year old’s 12.41 seconds African record run at the Paris leg was among the seven area records set in the competition.
Brume, on her part competed only twice in the four qualification meetings, coming second on both ocassions, first in Eugene, USA (May 27) and Stockholm, Sweden (June 30) behind Sweden’s Sagnia Khaddi and Great Britain’s Jazmin Sawyers respectively.
The 26 year old garnered nine points from the two meets to finish seventh in the qualification ranking and missed out on the final in Zurich where only six jumpers qualified to compete for the $30,000 top prize money on offer plus the Diamond League Trophy and a wild card to the 19th World Athletics Championships next year in Belgrade.
