World Athletic Championships Oregon 2022: Nigeria’s Amusan, Brume sets jaw-breaking performances on the final day of action

Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan early Monday set a World Record, twice, to win the 100m hurdles in style at the World Championships.

On a night of many firsts, Amusan became the first Nigerian athlete to ever set a World Record in any event. It will also be the first time the Nigerian anthem would be played over the public address system during a medal presentation as the winner of an event.

Her victory and another great performance by Ese Brume meant that after labouring all week long with nothing tangible to show for their efforts, Team Nigeria ended their campaign at the World Championships in Oregon on a spectacular note; winning a gold and a silver medal on the final day of action.

The duo of Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume produced the medals for Nigeria and they did it in style Oregon with jaw-breaking performances.

Amusan set the World Record twice before she was crowned the world champion in the 100m hurdles while Brume needed to dig deep for her silver in the long jump.

Amusan who improved on her African Record during the heat in the semi-final delivered an extraordinary time; clocking 12.12secs to obliterate the former World Record of 12.20secs held by Keni Harrison of the United States since 2016. The previous championship record was 12.28sec set by Australian Sally Pearson in Daegu in 2011.

“I wanted to get out and go,” said Amusan after the race. “I did what I had to do.”

While that was amazing in itself, Amusan was not yet done as she improved on the World Record in her final race some hours later; winning in 12.06secs to become the first Nigerian World Champion ever.

Amusan got off to a scorching start and was smoothly into her stride after the first hurdle, building a clear lead and then pulling away ahead of Anderson and the fast-closing Camacho-Quinn for the gold.

Amusan’s victory, will for her, be some sort of compensation for a disappointing outing in Tokyo last year where she finished fourth in the final despite being touted to take one of the medals.

She walks away with a $100,000 prize money and will now turn her attention to the Commonwealth Games beginning on Thursday, July 28 where she’s also the defending champion in the event.

Amusan, who is a Diamond League trophy winner, Commonwealth Games champion, and multiple African Champion, now has an eye on the Olympic Games medal to add to her impressive collection.

Her compatriot Ese Brume, the African record holder, landed a silver medal in the women’s long jump final with a season’s best of 7.02m.

Brume is the first Nigerian to win a medal at two successive editions of the World Championships having won a bronze medal last time out in Doha.

Ese Brume leaped 7.02m to win Silver and Nigeria’s second medal on the last day of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Brume’s consistency had made her one of Nigeria’s medal hopefuls heading into the Championships. She barely made it into the final with her last attempt to book an automatic qualification spot.

The Silver medal is an improvement on the Bronze she won she won in Doha in 2019. Brume, Olympic Bronze medallist finished behind Germany’s Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo who leaped 7.12m. Brazil’s Leticia Oro Melo jumped 6.89m to take Bronze.

Brume is expected to be in Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games and will attempt to reclaim the Gold she won in 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland. She missed the 2018 edition in Gold Coast, Australia.

Upon her victory, Brume celebrated with Amusan both athletes with the Nigerian flag as they embraced.