PARIS 2024: Tobi Amusan Aiming to Rewrite Glory Alozie’s Olympic Games Record

Duro Ikhazuagbe Live in Paris

When Tobi Amusan takes to the track of Stade de France today in the heat of the women’s 100m hurdles of Paris 2024, she will be aiming to rewrite Nigerian history in the event.

Glory Alozie was the last Nigerian sprint hurdler to win a medal for the country at the Sydney Olympic Games in Australia 24 years ago. Ever since, no athlete, (male or female) has made the podium in the sprint hurdles. Only Amusan has rewritten Alozie’s National and African records in the event.

Of course, Alozie missed the gold by whiskers to Kazakhstan’s Olga Shishigina in a photo finish that cold night in Sydney. Track & field aficionados however praised Alozie for overcoming the death of her fiance, Hyginus Anugo, barely a few days into the race to win that precious silver. For reasons best known to the sprint hurdler, Alozie dumped Nigeria for Spain after Sydney and all appeared as if she went away with the country’s luck in that barrier sprint event. 

However, Oluwatobiloba Amusan has not only stepped in to rewrite history, she carries on her slender shoulder, the aspirations of over 220 million Nigerians for that elusive Olympic Games gold medal in the sport.

Amusan has every right to lay claim to the precious medal just like Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico; Jamaican Danielle Williams and Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton. These are the top dogs in the event and any of them is good enough for the gold. Camacho-Quinn in particular, is the biggest threat to Amusan realizing her dream here in Paris 2024. The Puerto Rican holds the Olympic record at 12.26secs achieved in Tokyo in 2021. She broke that Olympic record in the semifinals, running 12.26 secs, to go equal fourth on the world all-time list. The following day in the final, Camacho-Quinn won the gold medal with a time of 12.37 secs. Amusan failed to make the podium, placing fifth in Tokyo. But a year later, the petit Nigerian hurdler fondly called “Tobi Express” announced her final arrival on the big stage at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon USA. On that cold night, Amusan rewrote the 100m hurdler history, clocking a new world record of 12.12 secs in the semi-final of the World Championships. In the final, she further lowered the record to 12.06secs but was not legitimate as the wind reading of +2.5 m/s was above the acceptable limit.

After achieving the ultimate goal, Amusan went on to win back-to-back Commonwealth and African titles in 2018 and 2022 in the 100 m hurdles. She 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 (+1.8 m/s) achieving a winning streak in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

However, Amusan’s fairytale run got punctured when AIU slammed her for missing three anti-doping controls and was given a provisional suspension from participation in the sport she loves with her soul. That accusation disrupted the rhythm and build-up of this petit Nigerian hurdler towards an encore of another World Championships medal. 

On 17 August 2023, the Disciplinary Tribunal of CAS however found that Amusan had not committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation of three whereabouts failures within 12 months and her provisional suspension was lifted just a few days before her event at the 2023 World Championships held in Budapest, Hungary. She finished sixth in the final.

It is against this backdrop that this Olympic Games in particular is another opportunity for Amusan to reassert herself as the world’s leading barrier runner. A gold medal here at Paris 2024 will only be icing on her cake and an improvement on the silver Alozie brought home 24 years ago. It is not mission impossible!