It’s no longer news that Tobiloba Amusan made history as the first Nigerian athlete to win a World outdoor title and break a World record.
The 25 year old achieved these unprecedented feats at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA in July.
She ran an incredible 12.12 seconds to set a World record in the 100m hurdles on her way to making further history with her victory in the final to win the event’s gold medal.
Amusan also made history as the first Nigerian track and field athlete to successfully defend a Commonwealth Games title, the first to be nominated for a World Athlete of the year award and the first to win and successfully defend a Diamond League trophy.
But, do you know Amusan’s 12.12 seconds world record run is the greatest performance achieved by a Nigerian athlete in 2022?
Using the World Athletics Scoring Tables of Athletics, Sportsnow can reveal that Amusan’s 12.12 seconds run in Oregon and 12.29 seconds performance at the Diamond League final in Zurich top the list of some world class performances achieved by Nigerian athletes in the outgoing year.
The 12.12 seconds performance equals a 10.67 performance in the 100m, 21.68 in the 200m and 48.38 in the 400m while the 12.29 seconds feat equals a 10.78 run in the blue ribband event, 21.90 in the 200m and 48.96 in the 400m.
Amusan’s followed by Louisiana State University student-athlete, Favour Ofili whose unprecedented 21.96 seconds run in the 200m ranks as the third best performance by a Nigerian athlete in 2022.
Ofili’s 21.96 is the first and only sub-22 seconds performance by a Nigerian in the history of the 200m event and is equal to a 10.81 in the 100m and a hundreth of a second (49.11) off the Nigeria and Africa’s 49.10 record run by Falilat Ogunkoya in the 400m.
Third on the list is Ese Brume’s 7.00m leap at the long jump pit at the Alexander stadium in Birmingham, United Kingdom where she reclaimed her Commonwealth Games title with the Games record.
Brume’s feat is equalled to a 10.91 run in the 100m, 22.17 in the 200m, 49.65 in the 400m and 12.49 in the 100m hurdles.
