Tobi Amusan’s trophy cabinet must be running out of space going by the swift rate at which she has been churning out laurels for the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) since joining the institution this year.
The African Games Champion was awarded two honours namely High Point Scorer, and Freshman of the Conference USA Championships, which held in Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the weekend. Fellow Miner Jonah Koech was also named Freshman of the C-USA in the men’s category.
On Saturday, Amusan scored eight points for her school after making a leap of 6.06m to finish 2nd behind Middle Tennessee State’s Elizabeth Dadzie. The Ghanaian won the event with her leap of 6.09m, while Qetuwrah Abdullah-Muhammad finished 3rd, also with 6.06m.
Amusan then competed in her key event, the 100m Hurdles and 200m heats on the same day, winning both races in 13.40s and 23.87s respectively. Team mate and fellow Nigerian Rebecca Oshinbajo was 6th in the same 100m Hurdles heat with a time of 13.96s.
On the final day of competition, Amusan added a massive 20 points to her tally by racing to the C-USA 100m Hurdles and 200m titles with impressive marks of 13.06s (+2.1) and 23.27s (+1.0).
UTEP Head Coach Mika Laaksonen could not hide his delight at Amusan’s prowess while speaking with the El Paso Herald-Post. He said:
“Tobi came mid-year and you can just tell she is a special athlete. She really hit her stride and I don’t think we have seen her reach her full potential yet; she is an amazing athlete. I look forward to having her for three more years.”
Florence Uwakwe also competed at the meet and narrowly missed out on a place on the podium after finishing 4th in the 200m final in a time of 23.82s, and 6th in the 100m where she clocked 11.85s.
Ada Benjamin scooped Silver in the women’s 400m in 54.54s, with Middle Tennessee State’s Loveth Odia finishing 4th in the same race in 54.96s. Benjamin and Uwakwe thereafter competed in the 4x400m, winning Silver for UTEP in 3:39.08 behind Western Kentucky that struck GOLD in 3:39.05.
