Tobi Amusan is a Nigerian track and field athlete who specializes in the 100m hurdles as well as sprinting.
Amusan has caused a stir after smashing a world record in the women’s 100-meter hurdles in the semifinals at the World Championships this Sunday, with a record time of 12.12 seconds, beating Kendra Harrison’s 2016 record of 12.20 by 0.8 seconds and then squashing her semi-final set the record to win in the final with 12.06 second as she went on to bag gold.
Even though her initial finishing time of 12.06 was ruled out due to strong wind speeds.
Amusan’s world record created an uproar in the athletics world and beyond, earning her a spot on the Forsige Influencer list not only for the record she set but also for the fact that she believes in herself and worked hard to achieve it.
Amusan predicted her own success in a 2016 tweet. Tobi tweeted in November 2016: “Unknown now, but soon I’ll be unforgettable. I will persist until I succeed.”
This kind of confidence may have sounded ridiculously vague at the time, but her ability to dream it and keep pushing for greater height is encouraging.
Amusan was a gifted athlete from a young age. She won silver at the 2013 African Youth Championships in Warri, Nigeria. She also won gold in the 100m hurdles at the African Junior Athletics Championships in Addis Abeba in 2015. In 2015, she won the gold medal in the 100m hurdles in her All-Africa Games debut as an eighteen-year-old.
She is a source of inspiration for future generations in her home country and beyond.
Congratulations poured in from all around the world, including her own Nigeria, upon Tobi Amusan’s victory, which marks the first gold for Nigeria at such an event.
