The 2017 indoor season is still very young, but Oluwatobiloba Amusan is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that she enjoys a perfect campaign this season.
Fresh from winning the 60m Hurdles in her opening meet for the year – the Commodore Invitational, the Nigerian hurdler consolidated on that performance by winning
the 60m Hurdles and 200m titles at the University of New Mexico Cherry and Silver Invitational held on January 20 and 21 at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
Having set a Personal Best (PB) of 8.18s the week before, the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) Sophomore lowered her time to 8.09s to finish ahead of Evonne Britton (8.15s) and Micha Auzenne (8.29s) in the heats. Amusan returned for the semis where she ran a time of 8.14s, before shaving 0.01s off her PB to win the final in 8.08s. Micha Auzenne was 2nd (8.11s) and Britton 3rd in 8.18s.
Not done with winning titles and setting PBs, Amusan also raced in the 200m where she finished with fastest time overall, setting an Indoor PB of 23.56s. Lexis Lambert (23.87s) and Simone Glenn (23.95s) followed, while compatriot Ada Benjamin placed 4th in 24.43s.
UTEP teammate and fellow Nigerian Florence Uwakwe was 2nd in the women’s 400m final where she posted a time of 54.49s, as Gia Trevisan finished 3rd in 54.99s. The race was won by Lexis Lambert with a time of 54.37s.
It was double victory for the Miners ‘A’ team in the 4x400m relay. Uwakwe and Benjamin partnered with Madison Gibson and Imani Adams to take the victory for their school in 3:42.25, finishing ahead of Barton County ‘A’ (3:42.28) and Utep ‘B’ (3:53.04).
The Utep ‘A’ quartet of James Bias, Asa Guevara, Jonah Koech and Emmanuel Korir won the men’s race in a time of 3:10.45. Barton County ‘A’ and New Mexico ‘B’ finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in 3:12.67 and 3:15.34.
