Amusan Retains 100m Hurdles Title
Oluwatobi Amusan survived a false start yesterday to claim her third African Games 100m hurdles gold medal in Accra, Ghana.
She won it in 2015 (Congo Brazzaville) and 2019 in Morocco.
The petit Nigerian hurdler who is world record holder at 12.12secs in the event scorched to 12.89s (-2.1) ahead of Sidonie Fiadanantsoa of Madagascar who picked the silver in 13.19secs.
Ashley Tinashe of Zimbabwe clocked 13.59secs to win the consolation bronze while the second Nigerian in the final, Faith Osamuyi (13.77secs) missed out on podium, finishing in the fourth place.
Amusan who could not match the new Games record of 12.68secs she set at the last edition in Rabat, Morocco, created a huge scare for some Nigerian officials inside the University of Ghana Sports Stadium not familiar with the new false-start rule.
The new World Athletics rule that came into effect January 2023 replaced the previous false-start that automatically disqualifies any athlete that beats the gun. That rule knocked out former Jamaican track legend, Usain Bolt, from the finals of the 2011 World Athletics Championship in Daegu, South Korea.
The new rule now allows one false-start before red card for any subsequent athlete that beats the starter’s gun. This explains the yellow card that fans saw waved at Amusan before the restart of the race.
Amusan then calmly flew out of the blocks to take charge of the 100m hurdles race with no real or imagined threat from any of the other finalists. She led from start to finish.
