Tobi Amusan Set To Start Her Title Defence Today

World Champion and record holder of the 100m women’s hurdles Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan will begin her title defence today August 22, at the World Athletic Championship in Budapest.

An elated Amusan who is carrying huge prayers from Nigerians was on the verge of missing out on the championship before she was cleared of doping allegation.

At 6:12 p.m. later today, the 26-year-old Amusan will be at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary to commence a process that could earn her a back-to-back World Athletics Championships title and probably break her record.

Tobi Amusan is expected to run on lane four in the fifth and final heat of the first round.

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She will compete against Olympic bronze medal winner Megan Tapper of Jamaica, Maayke Tjin-a-lim of the Netherlands, Michelle Jenneke of Australia, Yumi Tanaka of Japan, Natalia Christofi of Cyprus, Ebony Morrison of Liberia, and Nika Glojnaric of Slovenia.

At this stage in the last edition of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, the USA, in 2022, Tobi Amusan broke the African record in the 100-meter hurdles with a timing of 12.40 seconds.

Amusan followed that up by breaking the 12.20 seconds world record set by Kendra Harrison in 2016, as she finished her amazing performance at the tournament by clocking a wind-aided world record (12.06 seconds) in the final to win the gold medal and become the first Nigerian to win a world outdoor championship.

Recall that she almost missed the 2023 World Athletics Championships when she allegedly failed to attend three doping tests in 12 months. Due to the anti-doping violation, she was suspended in July.

Fortunately for her, the Athletics Integrity Unit cleared her in time before the registration for the 2023 World Athletics Championships closes. Now, she is Nigeria’s best bet for a medal in Budapest and fans who celebrated with her following the clearance will be hoping to see her shine in Budapest today.