Tobi Amusan born on 23rd April 1997 is a Nigerian track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles and also competes as a sprinter.
Oluwatobiloba Ayomide aka Tobi Amusan became the first Nigerian world champion in an athletics event when she won the 2022 World Athletics Championships 100 metres hurdles gold medal, setting a new world record of 12.12 seconds in the semifinal, followed up by a 12.06 seconds record in the final to take the gold medal.
She was the 2018 Commonwealth Champion in the 100m hurdles. She’s also the reigning African Champion in the event, winning back to back gold medals at the 2018 and 2022 African Championships in Athletics and is also a two-time African Games champion in the event.
She won the Diamond League Trophy in Zurich in 2021 in the 100m hurdles becoming the first Nigerian to do so, also breaking the then African Record held by Glory Alozie in the process.
Early life and education
Tobi Amusan was born on April 23, 1997, in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria, to Mr and Mrs. Amusan who are school teachers.
Tobi, as she is fondly called, is the last child of three siblings. She had her Secondary School Education at Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School, Ijebu Ode, Ogun state.
Career
From an early age, Amusan was an accomplished athlete. She was a silver medallist at the 2013 African Youth Championships in Warri.
She also claimed gold in the 100 metres hurdles at the 2015 African Junior Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa. In 2015, while making her All-Africa Games debut as an eighteen year old, she won the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles.
2022 World Athletics Championships
Tobi Amusan entered the 2022 World Athletics Championships as a medal contender after back-to-back 4th place finishes.
In the heats she ran an African record of 12.40s, bettering her old record by 0.01s. In the semifinal, she set a new world record of 12.12s. She bested her time once again in the final, running 12.06s (2.5m/s wind assisted, thus not a legal WR), becoming the first Nigerian world champion at the World Athletics Championships.
