Amusan shatters 100m hurdles world record
Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan broke the 100m hurdles world record in a stunning 12.12 seconds before claiming the gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The 25-year-old ran even faster in the final – but her 12.06 was ruled ineligible by an illegal tailwind. The previous record of 12.20 was set in 2016 by American, Kendra Harrison.
Jamaica’s Britany Anderson took silver, and Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, got bronze.
Amusan, who had already run a new African record of 12.40 seconds in Saturday’s heats, said: “I believe in my abilities, but I was not expecting a world record at these championships.
“I wanted to get out and go. I did what I had to do.”
Not long after the race, TV commentator, Michael Johnson, the former world 200m and 400m record holder, tried to take the shine off Amusan by suggesting whether the timing system at Hayward Field was off.
A few others who wanted to spoil the brilliant performance of the African sprinter suggested that Amusan had been given a boost by using Adidas Adizero Avanti shoes, which are designed for 5km and 10km runners, rather than track spikes.
After running even faster to win gold in the final, nearly two hours later, some commentators would rather give the glory to the Adidas shoes rather than Amusan.
Shoes or no shoes, honour must be given to whom it is due. In 1960, 28-year-old East African, Abebe Bikila amazed the world when he won the Olympic marathon after running barefoot. Commentators said the barefoot running had an advantage because she ran without shoes.
Four years later, in Tokyo, he won again – this time with shoes.
The sales of Adidas Adizero Avanti shoes is expected to be exponential, but shoes by themselves would not automatically make anyone a record breaker.
There is nothing illegal about the shoes, with current World Athletics rules dictating that sprint spikes cannot have soles thicker than 20mm – the same as the Adizero Avanti.
Asked how he would celebrate, the Olympic and world champion smiled, saying, “I’ll probably stay up kinda late. Those kinda performances probably call for something fun.”
Elsewhere, the Mihambo was on the brink of exiting the competition after faulting on her first and second jumps but recovered well to register a valid third attempt of 6.98m. Ese Brume of Nigeria claimed silver with 7.02m, while Brazil’s Leticia Oro Melo took bronze with 6.89m, a personal best.
Afterwards, World Athletics revealed that the record for the number of countries winning gold medals at one championship had been broken, with 29 countries taking turns on the top step of the podium, compared with 26 in 2017. Peru, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria won their first-ever gold medals, while India and Burkina Faso enjoyed their best-ever medal performances in winning silver.