Nigerian sprinter, Tobi Amusan, has set a new African women’s 60-metre hurdles indoor record with a time of 7.77 seconds.
Tobi Express, as she’s fondly called, stormed to a scintillating Personal Best of 7.77s, breaking Glory Alozie’s Area Record of 7.82s in the women’s 60m hurdles, set 25 years ago in Madrid.
The performance came at the Astana Indoor Meet in Kazakhstan on Saturday [today].
Tobi shattered fellow Nigerian, Gloria Alozie’s longstanding continental mark of 7.82 seconds set in 1999.
The 26-year-old stormed to victory in the 60m hurdles final ahead of American Nia Ali and Ireland’s Sarah Lavin.
It was Nigeria’s opening race of the 2023 athletic season after Amusan’s rollercoaster finish last year.
She was provisionally suspended before the World Championships for missed drug tests but she was later cleared.
Tobi then failed to defend her 100m hurdles world title, finishing sixth in Budapest. But she approached the year on a high by winning her third consecutive Diamond League trophy.
The new 60m hurdles record continues Amusan’s rise as a trailblazer for African female sprint hurdlers.
In 2022, she became the first Nigerian to win a World Athletics Championship gold. She also broke the women’s 100m hurdles world record enroute to that triumph.
See the tweet announcing Tobi Amusan’s feat:
Area record 🙌
🇳🇬’s Tobi Amusan reigns supreme in the women’s 60m hurdles as she clocks a 7.77 area record in Astana 👀#WorldIndoorTour pic.twitter.com/KrzoPnXCEx
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) January 27, 2024
