Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan has demonstrated that 2016 may well be the year she breaks 13s after storming to a Personal Best (PB) of 13.06s on Saturday at the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) Springtime Invitational.
This was an improvement on her former mark of 13.11s, set enroute winning the 2015 African Games in Brazzaville. Amusan finished 2nd behind Evonee Britton who won the race with a World Lead (WL) of 13.00s.
Amusan’s time was 4th in the world at the time (now 5th), the 3rd fastest in UTEP history and 2nd fastest in the NCAA behind Jasmine Quinn of Kentucky who clocked 13.01s.
This feat was an inspiring one for the African Junior champion who first competed in the 4x100m where she teamed up with fellow Nigerian Florence Uwakwe, Tyler Ragin and Yanique Bennet to take the victory with a time of 45.47s.
Tobi said to El Paso Times: “I wanted to run 13 and I got it. I felt tired after running (and winning) the 4x100m; I just tried to keep moving fast. This is a very good way to start the season. I’m excited about it.”
The UTEP Freshman had earlier set a PB of 8.23s to win the 60m Hurdles at the 2016 Conference USA Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Amusan wasn’t the only Nigerian in good form at Kidd Field. Uwakwe anchored the 4x100m team to victory and also stormed to the 200m title in 23.72s, before finishing 4th in the 100m with a PB of 11.77s.
