By Basit Jamiu
Tobiloba Amusan, the Nigerian trailblazer, has been named Africa’s Best Female Athlete for the Year 2022 by the Confederation of African Athletics on Tuesday.
Faith Kipyegon and Letesenbet Gidey of Kenya and Ethiopia respectively who are both world champions in the 1500m and 1000m came second and third behind the Nigerian athlete.
Rocky Journey: How Tobi Amusan became a World Champion
Tobi Amusan slows down her gait, halting gently to take a long breath.
She bends down, her hands touching her laps, beaming with joy of victory.
For half a decade, Amusan was “an almost girl”, the girl who always comes close to the prize but never scoops it.
In many competitions, she would train day and night only to finish fourth, sometimes a few seconds short of being in the top three.
Before her breakthrough at the 2022 World Championships in the United States, she had come fourth five times on the world stage.
“Two Olympics, and three World Championships, every year we put in the work and it’s always a fourth-place finish or semi-finals. So, every Championship year I had a trauma- what if I come in fourth place again,” she said.
Hers is that of resilience, a laudable defiance, of surmounting all odds; poverty, stereotype, depression, and parental choices.
In July, clothed in her Nigerian tracksuit, she stood on the podium, waiting excitedly with hands folded behind her to receive her gold medal, and as she did, she wept.
Tears of joy ran through her eyes when the Nigeria anthem was played to recognize her nationality; a place where her dream was rooted and germinated.
The road to her stellar rise to fame started rough at home in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State where her parents were both teachers.
Her parents -Mr. and Mrs. Amusan – wanted her to focus on education.
School, to many parents in Ogun State, was key to a better future. A certain and secured way of making a stable income.
As the last born in a family of three children, Amusan was particularly taken to sports.
She loves to run, and she loves how she feels when she does.
Early Disappointment Led to Bigger Doors of Opportunity
Amusan tasted her first disappointment at the age of 13 but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
After spending time to convince her parents to give her a shot in sprinting, the young teen went to a track and field competition in Abuja.
It was her first real attempt at a competition but when she arrived, the marathon had already been completed.
“The events left were long jumps, hurdles and some events that I can’t even put my head into. I was like, hurdles, isn’t that just run and jump? Let me go!” She decided to participate in the hurdle competition.
And she won: “I think I defeated the fastest girl we had then doing the hurdles. I think she had a PR of 14 flat, and I ran 14.2 to win the event,” she said.
That was the start of her journey in hurdles. With that victory at the age of 13, she could project to her parents what is possible in athletics if she is allowed to pursue it.
And the trajectory onwards, filled with highs and lows, had brought her close to her dream of winning a gold medal at the world stage.
In 2013, as a junior athlete, she won silver at African Youth Championship in 200m held in Warri. In 2014, she went home with another silver in 200m hurdles at African Youth Games hosted in Gaborone. At Addis Ababa, in 2015, she finally got her hand at her gold medal 100m hurdles in African Youth Championship.
She had had better chances at continental stage and had done well as a young athlete but her heart still yearned for a medal, a gold in 100m hurdles at the global stage.
It took six years of consistent work and pain of defeat to wear the crown.
Fighting Her Worst Demon
In 2019, Amusan worked tirelessly, her eyes fixed on the top prize at the Brussels Diamond League but then she was disqualified in the final for a false start.
She was devastated: “I was unhappy when it happened but I found strength in the encouragement I received,” she said.
One of the people who offered her words of encouragement was Sunday Dare, The Minister of Youth and Sports, who commented on her fighting spirit and the performance she put up at the competition.
“Amusan was disqualified on Friday for a false start even though she started after the gun went off as her 0.096secs reaction time was just below the 0.10secs permitted. Her back-to-back performances at the African Games and in Berlin remain inspiring,” Dare said.
Amusan moved from that experience to other nightmares that is now a testament of her mental strength. The crux of that was her consistent fourth place at the world stage.
“Last year I almost gave up on track. I came back from the Olympics, and I went straight into depression mode for weeks,” Amusan said in an interview.
Historic Moment of Triumph
Two years after her disqualification, the Nigerian athlete won the 2021 Diamond League in 100m hurdles. She retained the trophy in 2022.
She is the current Nigerian world champion after she won gold medal at the 2022 World Championships 100 m hurdles.
She also set a world record of 12.12 seconds in the semi final and 12.06 (wind-assisted) in the final.
