Oluwatobiloba Amusan, a 25-year-old lady from Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria became the first Nigerian athlete to win a World Athletics Championship gold following her win in the women’s 100m hurdles in Oregon on Sunday, July 17, 2022, to claim a world record in her name in an astonishing semi-final where she clocked 12.12sec, and powered over the line at Hayward Field in 12.06sec.
The previous world record was held by Keni Harrison of the United States in 2016.
Who is Tobi Amusan?
Born Oluwatobiloba Ayomide “Tobi” Amusan, Tobi Amusan (as she is fondly called) was born on 23 April 1997. Going by her date of birth, she is currently 25 years old (as of 2022).
She’s a Nigerian track and field athlete who specializes in the 100 meters hurdles and also competes as a sprinter.
Education
She had her Secondary School Education at Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School, Ijebu Ode, Ogun state.
Tobi Amusan’s tertiary education is at the University of Texas, El Paso, United States (the same institution where Blessing Okagbare attended). Her college team is UTEP Miners while she belongs to the Buka Tigers Athletics Club.
She received a scholarship to attend the University of Texas, El Paso in 2016.
Amusan first broke through the 13s barrier in the 100m hurdles in 2016 with a time of 12.83s at the El Paso UTEP Invitational.
In The Beginnings
Tobi Amusan is the last child of three siblings. Her parents are school teachers; thus her strict upbringing was not surprising.
According to some reports she usually sneaks to the stadium to train, in disobedience of her dad’s rules about doing sports, making her mom cover up for her that she’s gone to church meanwhile she’s training at the stadium.
For Amusan’s father, reading and taking one’s studies seriously is the tested and proven way to success and stardom not running around the stadium in the name of training.
But luckily for Tobi, her mother was a bit liberal and was ready to accommodate her little baby’s love and interest in sports. As long as it does not impede her academics.
“My life centered around going to school, sleeping, eating, and reading books, the same cycle that I took into my later life later,” Amusan told worldathletics.org in an interview conducted in 2020.
Meanwhile, her father and mother were also athletes. Her father played volleyball for Ogun State while her mother was a sprinter in her tertiary school days.
Tobi’s father’s opposition to her athletic interest could be because her mother got injured in sports and was abandoned by the authorities.
Personal belief
On November 8, 2016, at about 7 am Texas time, Oluwatobiloba Amusan wrote on Twitter, “Unknown now, but? I will be UNFORGETTABLE … I will Persist until I SUCCEED ….”
In 2017, Amusan told Making of Champions, “at this moment, Kendra [Harrison] owns the record and I don’t have any but she doesn’t have two heads. It will be good for me to run a PR or break the world record if she is not careful–just kidding…”
In 2020, Amusan mused on Twitter, “My coach taught me that when I walk into a room full of my rivals to look like I own the damn world record. She always reminds me that I’ve practiced hard to trust myself and translate that aggressiveness onto the track.”
Two years later, there is no kidding about the fact that Amusan is a world champion and a record breaker. If not for a tailwind of 2.5m/s, we would talk about a historical event that may never be replicated. One thing that comes through is that Amusan always believed she could become the best in the world in the 100m Hurdles, and eventually, her belief became a fact.
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