Famous Nigerian hurdler, Tobi Amusan disclosed in a video chat with Justin Tuckey that winning the World Championships 100m hurdles gold medal at the World Championships in Oregon was a turning point in her career.
She noted that she had almost given up and made up her mind to dump athletics and go back to school. She further stated that she would have quit athletics last year but for the intervention and encouragement from her coach.
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In her words:
“That was the moment of ‘did I just do that?’. But yes, it was months, years, and a crazy amount of training and hard work that people saw in 12secs. Sweat, tears, heartbreaks and on the verge of quitting literally every other year. You know seeing it unfold at that moment, with my coach in the stands was just ‘ma we did it’, you know it was just crazy. That year, I was like if something doesn’t go right… And I felt like it was what actually got me into doing my Masters because I was looking forward to what if the season doesn’t go right?”
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“In as much as we want to do great things, God approves whatever thing we want to do, but then it’s more of I’ve been putting in the work and showing up every year and it was just fourth, fourth, so I was just tired. It was a moment of God, you can still do something even when you’re broken and you feel like it’s over, because 2022 was supposed to be like my quit year. “I mean if God doesn’t want to show up I can as well do something with my energy. So, it was just the moment I wanted to quit and God just showed up miraculously, so it was a huge moment for myself, my coach, my family and everyone who supported me.”
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It should be recalled that Tobi Amusan is a world 100m hurdles champion and record holder. She is a 25-year-old athlete who became the first Nigerian world champion in athletics, when she won the 2022 World Championships 100m hurdles gold medal. This feat made her set the current world record of 12.12secs in the semi-final, followed by 12.06secs in the final. Tobi won her Diamond League Trophy in Zurich in a new meet record of 12.29secs before winning gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
