Nigerian hurdler, Tobi Amusan, set a new African record in the heat three of the 100m women’s hurdles at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA to qualify for the semi-final.
The record sees the 25-year-old lead the semi-final race which will hold in the early hours of Monday, our correspondent learnt.
Amusan who previously held a personal best and African record of 12.41secs in June surpassed her previous feat on Saturday as she ran a new record heat time ever at a global championship finishing her race with a time of 12.40secs.
The UTEP alumnus, who missed out on the podium in Tokyo last year, has now broken the African record three times in ten months (12.42secs in Zurich, 12.41secs in Paris and 12.40secs in Eugene).
The Nigerian hurdler finished ahead of Jamaica’s Danielle Williams (12.87secs), Ireland’s Sarah Lavin (12.99secs) and Australia’s Celeste Mucci (13.01secs).
In the semi-finals the reigning African Games and African Championships will be up against US’s Alia Armstrong who recorded a time of 12.48secs, Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn with a time of 12.52secs and Jamaica’s Brittany Anderson who finished first with a time of 12.59secs in heat one.
Amusan, who finished fourth three years ago at the World Championship in Doha, is seeking to become the second Nigerian sprint hurdler to win a medal at the Championships after Glory Alozie, who won a silver medal in Seville, Spain in 1999.
This time around, Amusan will feel that she can finally win a medal, buoyed by this recent achievement.
In the Long jump event, Ese Brume and Ruth Usoro qualified for the final as the third and eighth overall best athlete after they both leaped a distance of 6.82m and 6.69m on Saturday.
The duo will be up against Quanesha Burks, Malakika mhambo, Maryna Berk-Romanchuk, khaddi Sagnia, Brooke Bushukuehl, Tifanny, Flynn, Jazmin Sawyers, Lorraine Ugen, Ivana Vuleta and Letica Melo.
On Saturday, the quartet of Joy Udo-Gabriel, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha secured qualification for the final of the Women’s 4×100m event.
Aside from being the second Nigerian relay team to make it to the final in Oregon, they are the first Nigerian team in 11 years to qualify for the women’s 4x100m final at the World Championships.
The Nigerian ladies achieved the commendable feat after racing to a Season’s Best of 42.68secs to finish third in Heat 2 of the event.
