Global body for track and field, World Athletics, has formally validated the stunning record set by Tobi Amusan in July.
The Nigerian athlete provided the highlight of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, United States of America on July 24 when she broke the women’s 100 metres hurdles world record by winning her semi-final heat in 12.12 seconds, erasing Kendra Harrison’s old mark of 12.20s set in 2016.
Amusan went on to win Nigeria’s first-ever World Athletics Championships gold medal when she won the final in an astonishing 12.06s, which would have been yet another world record but was wind-assisted.
Her triumph so shook athletics circles that there were doubts raised about the accuracy of the timing device, with the legendary American 200m and 400m champion Michael Johnson the loudest doubter.
However, two months after the historic achievement, World Athletics has confirmed the record and made it official, along with some other new world marks.
“The world records set by Tobi Amusan, Mondo Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 have been ratified,” World Athletics announced on their official website today.
“Amusan’s 12.12 in the women’s 100m hurdles semi-finals, Duplantis’s 6.21m in the men’s pole vault final and McLaughlin’s 50.68 in the women’s 400m hurdles final are all now officially in the record books, as is the world U-20 mark of 9.94 set by Letsile Tebogo in the men’s 100m heats.
“McLaughlin’s was the first of the senior records to fall at this year’s World Athletics Championships, the US 23-year-old obliterating her own previous world record with a time of 50.68.
“It is the fourth world 400m hurdles record of McLaughlin’s career following her 51.90 at the 2021 US Olympic Trials, 51.46 at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and 51.41 achieved at this year’s US Championships. That 51.41 has also now been ratified.
“Since 2019 – in less than three years – the world record has been improved by almost two seconds. The mark of 52.34 had stood for 16 years before USA’s Dalilah Muhammad took it to 52.20 and then 52.16. On 27 June 2021, McLaughlin broke it for the first time.”
Curiously, Johnson and the other athletics pundits did not have any concerns about fellow American McLaughlin shaving off almost half a second from the women’s 400m hurdles record.
World Athletics traced Amusan’s lead-up to the world record in Oregon.
“After clocking an African record of 12.40 in the 100m hurdles heats, the world was put on notice that 25-year-old Amusan was capable of something special,” the global body noted.
“The next day, she ran 12.12 (0.9m/s) in the semifinals to improve the world record of 12.20 that had been set by USA’s Kendra Harrison in London in 2016.
“Amusan wasn’t done there, though, and she followed that remarkable performance with a wind-assisted 12.06 (2.5m/s) to win the final.”
After her double firsts — first Nigerian to set a world record in athletics and the first to win a World Athletics Championships gold — Amusan admitted that she was surprised by her feat.
“The goal was to come out and to win this gold,” she said. “Honestly, I believe in my abilities, but I was not expecting a world record at these championships.”
Amusan continued her remarkable run this year by retaining her Commonwealth title with a new Games record in August and winning a second consecutive Diamond League trophy in September.
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