By Kamsi Anayo with agency report
Tobi Amusan has started her title defence at the World Athletics Championship on a fine note by finishing first in Heat 5 with a time of 12.48s.
The world hurdles record holder clocked 12.48s (0.4) to win the fifth heat of the women’s 100mH despite not having enough time to slow down towards the end at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary.
Despite a slow start, she finished ahead of Jamaican Champion Megan Tapper who came 2nd in 12.51s and and Australian Michelle Jenneke in 12.71s.
The 100m hurdles champion and world record holder competed in Heat 5 alongside Ebony Morrison, Michelle Jenneke, Maayke Tjin-a-lim, Natalia Christofi, Nika Glojnaric, and Maayke Tjin-a-lim.
Amusan will lead the rest out in the semi final on Wednesday at 7:20pm Nigerian time.
At the 2022 World Championship in Eugene, USA, Amusan came first with a 12.40 (African record) before setting a new world record of 12.12 to smash the 12.20 world record set by Kendra Harrison in 2016.
Recall that Amusan was cleared last week by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after fears had emerged that the sprint champion would not be cleared in time to defend her title at the championship in Budapest.
However, a disciplinary panel cleared Amusan of any wrongdoing two days before the commencement of the championship.
“A panel of the Disciplinary Tribunal, by majority decision, has today (Thursday) found that Tobi Amusan has not committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) of three Whereabouts Failures within a 12-month period,” the statement read.
Amusan is one of Nigeria’s medal hopefuls at the championship after a tough start as Ese Brume finished fourth in the women’s long jump event on Sunday.
The world hurdles champion enjoyed a superb run of form and set the current world record for the women’s 100m hurdles of 12.12 seconds at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon and a world title that followed in a record time of 12.06.
She also retained her Commonwealth Games title with a new Games’ record of 12.30s and defended her Diamond League title in a record-breaking season that saw her set impressive records and win the Nigerian, African, Commonwealth, World, and Diamond League titles
