Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan was the standout performer
at the Conference USA Indoor Track and Field Championships held in Birmingham, Alabama over the weekend, as she outclassed the rest of the field in the women’s 60m Hurdles and 200m respectively.
The African Games 100m Hurdles proved too strong for her opponents in the 60m Hurdles as she remained undefeated in the event and topped the overall standings in the heat with a time of 8.23s.
It was an entirely different ball game in the final as Amusan smashed Jackie Coward’s Meeting Record (MR) of 8.08s set in 2012, replacing it with a scorching time of 8.01s to take the title ahead of Safiyyah Mitchell (8.69s). Fellow Nigerian Rebecca Oshinbanjo took the Bronze medal in a time of 8.70s.
The sprinting sensation extended her dominance to the 200m where she once again wreaked havoc on her former Personal Best (PB) and University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) Record of 23.38s set earlier this month.
Having finished 2nd to Ghana’s Janet Amponsah in the overall standings in the preliminaries yesterday, the hurdler bounced back to take the victory in the final, erasing her former mark with a new time of 23.35s, as Amponsah followed in 23.56s.
Hannah Jackson (23.90s), Florence Uwakwe (23.94s) and Loveth Odia (24.29s) placed 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively. Amusan narrowly missed a place on the podium in the women’s Long Jump, having finished in 4th position with a distance of 5.79m.
Amusan was named the C-USA Track and Field Athlete of the Year (Female) as a Freshman at UTEP, and looks set to retain this award following her heroics this season.
Uwakwe finished 6th in the women’s 60m dash, which was won by Sydney Howells in 7.43s. Incidentally, Nigerian sprinter Gloria Asumnu holds the Stadium Record in the event, with her time of 7.07s set in 2012.
Meanwhile Oshinbanjo placed 11th overall in the Pentathlon event with a total of 3284 points.
