Athletics Federation of Nigeria president Tonobok Okowa has appealed to Nigerians to vote for Tobi Amusan in her quest to become the winner of the World Athletics Women’s World Athlete of the Year award.
Sprint hurdler Amusan is nominated along with nine other women for the award following her achievements in 2022, the year she became the first Nigerian athlete to set a world record (12.12 seconds in 100m hurdles) and win a World Athletics Championships outdoor title.
Okowa believes Amusan is not only deserving of the nomination but also deserves to become the first Nigerian to be crowned the best women’s athlete in the world.
“This 2022 has been a very successful year for Nigerian athletes and Tobi is the icing on the cake of the incredible season we have had,” Okowa said.
“The fact that Tobi was nominated is a positive development for us as a federation and a nation as no Nigerian athlete has ever made it to this level.
“Now we need to go a step further by playing our part to see that our darling Tobi is crowned the best in the world come December.”
Okowa urged Nigerians to go to World Athletics social media platforms to vote.
“It’s a three-way voting process that will determine the chances of Tobi and our votes will contribute a quarter of the total votes needed,” he explained.
The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Individual graphics for each nominee have been posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, and a ‘like’ on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.
Voting is open until midnight on October 31 and the winner will be announced in early December, according to World Athletics.
“Tobi has signposted the significant strides we have made in track and field since we came on board in June 2021,” Okowa added.
“We started by returning Nigerian athletics to the podium at the Olympics after a 13-year absence before achieving our best-ever performance at the World U-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.”
Amusan began her streak of many firsts in September last year when she became the first Nigerian athlete in the Diamond League era to win a Diamond Trophy, which she retained last month.
“This year, we continued where we left off in 2021 with Ese Brume returning us to the World Indoor Championships podium in Belgrade, 14 years after we last did through Olusoji Fasuba,” Okowa noted.
“This is coupled with the incredible feats our athletes achieved at collegiate meets in the USA.
“Favour Ofili set new Nigerian records in the 200m event (22.46s indoors and 21.96s outdoors), Nathaniel Ezekiel broke Henry Amike’s 35-year-old Nigerian 400m hurdles record (48.42s) and Nnamdi Chinecherem set a new Nigerian javelin record (81.22m).”
