By Jennifer Amarachi
World champion, Tobi Amusan has advanced to semi-finals in the 100-meter hurdles at the ongoing 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
With a time of 12.49 seconds, Amusan led the group of eight competitors. Alaysha Johnson of America came in second with 12.61 seconds, while Janeek Brown of Jamaica qualified with 12.84 seconds.
Amusan is undoubtedly one of the favorites to win the gold, but she will face tough competition from the Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton, the USA’s Alaysha Johnson, world champion Danielle Williams, and Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, the reigning Olympic winner.
On Friday, August 9, the semi-finals will take place, and on Saturday, August 10, the penultimate day of the athletics competition, the final will take place.
In the lead-up to the sporting event, the 27-year-old has been exhibiting exceptional form, setting a season’s best and a world record of 12.40 seconds (0.9) in the Jamaican Athletics Invitational in Kingston in May.
She had already set the African 60-meter hurdles indoor record twice in January and February.
She captured the gold in the women’s 4x100m relay in Accra and the African Championships in Cameroon three months later, in addition to winning her third straight African Games championship in Ghana in March.
Her competitions this season have included the 60-, 100-, and 100-meter hurdles, as well as the 4×100-meter relay.
Amusan has competed in two Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020) and is a three-time (consecutive) Diamond League champion, two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, two-time African champion, and three-time African Games gold medallist.
