Retired Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt, has praised Nigeria’s record breaker, Tobi Amusan, after clinching the gold medal in the Women’s 100 metres hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA.
Amusan’s gold medal came hours after smashing the world record in the semifinals on Sunday. The Nigerian went even faster to win the final nearly two hours later.
In the first track event of the final session of the 10th day of competition, Amusan streaked to a winning time of 12.12 seconds in the first of three semi-finals.
It smashed the previous best of 12.20sec set by American Kendra Harrison in 2016. Harrison was also in the first semi-final, finishing second in 12.27sec.
The Nigerian, who came fourth at the Tokyo Olympics and the last worlds in Doha in 2019, won the gold medal in 12.06 to earn the commendation from Bolt who is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay.
The 25-year-old become the first woman in the world to run below 12.2s and the first world record by any Nigerian in history.
Bolt who is widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time hailed the Nigeria queen in a series of tweets on his verified Twitter handle.
“Congrats”, retweeting World Athletics tweet celebrating her feat while also tweeting “Superb #Tobi” seconds late with three Nigerian flags.
Superb 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬 #Tobi
— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) July 25, 2022
Congrats 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 https://t.co/ly9W9EAfGK
— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) July 25, 2022
Amusan bested Bolt’s countrywoman Britany Anderson who clinched the silver medal and Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn who won bronze, both of whom were officially timed at 12.23 but separated in a photo finish by five-thousandths of a second.
Meanwhile, Bolt’s other countrywoman, Danielle Williams, who made it to the final but missed the podium by finishing sixth hailed Amusan and described her victory as amazing.
“It was wicked. Tobi literally spoke it into existence. Just last night I was looking at Instagram she wrote ‘incoming world record holder’ and to see it unfold today, I’m proud of Tibi. Definition of speaking things into existence.
“Tobi is one of my closest friends on the circuit here. She’s one of the people I talk to. It’s nothing short of inspirational. I know what Tobi has gone through over the years,” Williams said.
She also added that Amusan was close to giving up after coming fourth twice at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the last worlds in Doha in 2019.
“Finishing fourth twice is not an easy position. I know she’s been close to throwing in the towel because she’s spoken about that so to see her coming out here and do this right now is so amazing.”
