Tobi Amusan Nominated for 2023 Laureus Award

Nigeria’s 100 metres hurdles World Record holder, Oluwatobiloba Amusan, 25, has been nominated for the 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards. She is the first Nigerian male or female athlete to be nominated for the prestigious Laureus Award.

The petit barrier sprint star who set a new world record of 12.12 seconds last summer at the World Championships in Eugene, USA, was shortlisted in the World Breakthrough of the Year category alongside five other contestants like tennis stars, Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina; semi-finalist at Qatar 2022 World Cup Atlas Lions of Morocco; American figure skater Nathan Chen; and American professional golfer Scott Scheffler.

Amusan’s nomination for the World Breakthrough of the Year award is not unconnected to her impressive performance on the track in 2022. She won every trophy available in the sport in addition to erasing American Kendra Harrison’s world record of 12.20secs set in 2016.

Amusan’s beautiful season saw her defend her 100m hurdles title at the African Championships in Mauritius with a time of 12.57s before heading to Eugene, Oregon in July.

After accomplishing winning the gold and world record at the Worlds, Amusan went to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham to successfully defended her title, winning her second consecutive gold medal in the 100m hurdles with a new Games Record of 12.30secs. She also helped power Nigeria’s women’s 4 × 100 m relay team to gold.

She competed in her specialist event at the Lausanne Diamond Race meet later that month, finishing second with a time of 12.60secs, behind reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.

She capped her very successful season winning the 100m hurdles event at the Zürich Diamond League final event with a 12.29secs performance to retain her title.

For all these achievements in one calendar season, Amusan was rewarded with a National honour alongside Long Jumper Ese Brume.

For the main Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award category, Argentina’s 2022 World Cup winning Captain, Lionel Messi will again battle his PSG teammate, Kylian Mbappe for the top honour. Despite scoring a hat trick in the Argentina versus France World Cup final, Mbappe missed the chance to lift the trophy back-to-back. France won the title at Russia 2018.

Other contestants in the six-man shortlist include, NBA star, Stephen Curry, legendary tennis player Rafael Nadal, Formula 1 star, Max Verstappen, Pole Vaulter, Mondo Duplantis.

Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen was nominated for Comeback of the Year following his return to football after having a cardiac arrest while playing for Denmark at Euro 2020.

Kazakhstan’s Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina is shortlisted for World Breakthrough of the Year award, as is fellow tennis player Carlos Alcaraz after the Spaniard won the US Open and became the youngest ever men’s world number one.

First held in 2000, the Laureus World Sports Awards honours the greatest and most inspirational sporting triumphs of the year and showcases the work of Laureus Sport for Good.

LIST OF NOMINEES

BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR

Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) – Tennis

Tobi Amusan (Nigeria) – Athletics

Nathan Chen (USA) – Figure skating

Morocco men’s football team

Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) – Tennis

Scottie Scheffler (USA) – Golf

SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR

Steph Curry (USA) – Basketball

Armand Duplantis (Sweden) – Athletics

Kylian Mbappe (France) – Football