Tobi Amusan

This fulfilled a Nigerian tradition being 11th gold for Nigeria in the 100 m hurdles since Judy Bell-Gam triumphed at the inaugural edition of the championships in 1979.

She also claimed a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the championships.

In August, the 22-year-old successfully defended her African Games title.

Oluwatobiloba Ayomide "Tobi" Amusan (born 23 April 1997) is a Nigerian track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles and also competes as a sprinter.

Amusan is the current world record holder in the 100 metres hurdles with a time of 12.12 seconds which she set at the 2022 women's 100 metres hurdles semi final in Eugene Oregon.

She is the current Commonwealth and African champion in the 100 m hurdles, as well as the meet record holder in those two competitions.

Amusan became the first ever Nigerian world champion and world record holder in an athletics event when she won the 2022 World Championships 100 m hurdles gold medal, setting the current world record of 12.12 seconds (+0.9m/s) in the semi-final, followed up by a 12.06 seconds (+2.5m/s) in the final.

Tobi Amusan was born on 23 April 1997, in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria, to Mr and Mrs Amusan, who are school teachers.

Tobi, as she is fondly called, is the youngest of three children.

She attended Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School in her hometown.

In May 2023, Amusan earned Master of Arts degree in Leadership Studies and Sports Management at the University of Texas at El Paso.

From an early age, Amusan was an accomplished athlete.

She was the 200 metres silver medallist at the 2013 African Youth Championships held in Warri.

A year later, she took her first major medal in the 100 metres hurdles, which was also silver, at the African Youth Games.

In 2015, Amusan took gold in the 100 m hurdles at the African Junior Championships and the same year, as an 18-year-old, secured her first title at the African Games.

In 2021, Amusan became the first Nigerian athlete to win a Diamond League title as she took the 100 m hurdles trophy, breaking the then-African record held by Glory Alozie in the process.

She retained her title in 2022 and 2023.

She then claimed gold in the event at the 2015 African Junior Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa.

Also in 2015, while making her All-Africa Games debut as an eighteen-year-old, she won the gold medal in the 100 m hurdles.

In 2016, as a freshman in the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Amusan became the second athlete for the university to be named C-USA Female Track Athlete of the Year since UTEP joined C-USA.

She was the gold medallist in both the 100 m hurdles and the 200 m. She also claimed a silver in the long jump at the C-USA Championships.

Amusan first broke the 13 s barrier in the hurdles with a time of 12.83 s at the El Paso UTEP Invitational.

This eclipsed Kim Turner's UTEP record, which had stood for 33 years.

She was runner-up at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 100 m hurdles.

She ran a windy 12.79 s behind Kentucky's Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.

Amusan also competed at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Despite running her second-fastest time ever, she placed fifth in the final.

She went on to represent Nigeria at the Rio Olympic Games, reaching the semifinals of the 100 m hurdles.

In her first outdoor race of 2017, she ran a then-lifetime best and UTEP record of 12.63 s in the 100 m hurdles.

She was the C-USA champion in her specialist event and also the runner up in the 200 m. At the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships, there was a reversal of finishes in the 100 m hurdles.

In a dramatic race, Amusan claimed the title ahead of Camacho-Quinn, who was the previous year's champion.

She did this in a personal record time of 12.57 s. She also represented Nigeria at the World Championships in London later in the year.

She won back-to-back Commonwealth and African titles in 2018 and 2022 in the 100 m hurdles and is also a two-time African Games champion in the event.

She is also the current Diamond league champion in the 100 metres hurdles having won the final in 12.33 seconds (+1.8m/s) achieving a winning streak in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Amusan ran a personal best of 7.89 s in the 60 m hurdles at the start of her 2018 season.

She represented her country at the Birmingham World Indoor Championships, reaching the final in the event.

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, 2015 world champion Danielle Williams seemed to be the favourite to take the title in the absence of Sally Pearson.

In the final, however, Amusan moved ahead of her competitors and won the race by a clear metre ahead of Williams.

She also won a bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m relay with her teammates, Joy Udo-Gabriel, Blessing Okagbare and Rosemary Chukwuma.

Later in the year, she won her first African Championship title in her signature event at the Asaba African Championships.