2022 world champion and world record holder in the women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan missed out on qualification for the 100m hurdles final at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Friday.
Filed out in the sixth lane, the 27 year-old Nigerian finished in third position with a time of 12.55 seconds in the Heat 1 of the event on Friday.
Amusan’s chance was dashed by the subsequent qualification of Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent who finished at 12.44s and France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela who finished at 12.52s in the Heat 3.
She had secured a semi-final spot on Wednesday, running a time of 12.49 seconds to beat USA’s Alaysha Johnson, who was second in 12.61s and Jamaica’s Janeek Brown who was third in 12.84 seconds.
Despite being one of the favourites for Team Nigeria to win a gold medal at the Olympics, her recent performance is another in a series of Nigeria’s disappointing outings at the Olympics.
Amusan’s finishing time left her in ninth place, just one spot outside the top eight who made it into today’s final.
The only chance of Amusan being at the final – which is slim and obscure – is if any of the finalists withdraws due to an injury.
“That’s a new rule. If someone pulls out before the final, there is a possibility that Tobi can come in”, Athen 2004 Olympics Bronze medallist Deji Aliu said.
Athletics coach and statistician Lekan Soetan also echoed Aliu’s statement.
“If eight finalists are warming up, if someone pulls out, probably injured, they can call in someone in the waiting. So, Tobi is the waiting athlete in case there is an injury” Soetan said.
“So, all hope cannot be lost until there is a start list or until all of them come out to run, or probably 30 minutes before the race. But I don’t think anyone wont want to run the final.
“But sometimes when you are warming up for the hurdles, you attack the hurdles, and you know you are out. That miracle can happen.”
The 27-year-old Amusan closed Team Nigeria’s participation in athletics on a sad note, just after the men’s 4x400m relay team was disqualified for running on the lines.
The quartet of Emmanuel Ojeli, Ezekiel Nathaniel, Dubem Amene and Chidi Okezie had finished second in the heat with a season’s best of 2:59:81.
