Tobi Amusan has set a new 100m hurdles African mark, breaking the old record she set recently.
The Nigerian star won her heat at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, United States of America tonight in a time of 12.40 seconds, erasing the old record of 12.41 she set in the Diamond League in June.
The 25-year-old is chasing her first global medal after finishing fourth in the finals of the 100m hurdles at the last World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar in 2019 and the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Her winning time in Heat 3 was also the best of all the 24 athletes heading to tomorrow’s semi-finals.
The next best time in the heats, 12.48s, was returned by the USA’s Alia Armstrong, with Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn third best with 12.52s.
Two other Nigerian athletes were in fine form tonight, Ese Brume and Ruth Usoro qualifying for the women’s long jump final.
The 26-year-old Brume leapt 6.82 metres to qualify automatically in second place for the final from Group A, only beaten by USA’s Quanesha Burks, who jumped a season’s best distance of 6.86m.
In Group B, Usoro recorded 6.69m to finish fourth and squeeze through as one of the best non-automatic qualifiers.
In all, Brume had the third best leap of all 16 qualifiers, behind Burks and Tokyo Olympics gold medallist, Germany’s Malika Mihambo. Usoro’s distance is eighth best overall.
Brume is aiming for her third consecutive global medal after winning bronze in Doha and Tokyo, while Usoro has never won any global medal.
