(Sports news) Tobi Amusan crossed the finish line in the women’s 100m hurdles final and created history at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 as she looked shocked to check her timewhich popped up on the clock at 12.06 – 0.06 faster than the world record time which she had set less than two hours prior in the first heat of the semifinals. Her attention quickly flipped to the wind-gauge, which read 2.5m/s, and she realised her time in the final would not count as a world record because the wind speed wasn’t legal. However, Amusan was still delighted as she had already set the world record in the semifinal and then she followed up with her first World Championships gold.
Three years ago, Amusan had finished fourth at the World Championships in Doha but since then her form only improved from there, and she posted a personal best of 12.41 at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris last month before travelling to Eugene for the World Championships. Here her times began to get faster when she topped her personal best by .01 in the qualifying rounds itself and then she went on to, break the African record in the process, before breaking the world record in the semifinal and running the wind-aided 12.06 in the final. Amusan accelerated ahead of the field after clearing the sixth hurdle as she easily held off Jamaica’s Britany Anderson and Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, both of whom were officially timed at 12.23 but ultimately had to be separated in a photo finish by five thousandths of a second.
Before coming to the World Championships, Anderson won her first Jamaican title with a PB of 12.45 then improved on that time in the semifinal as she ran a national record of 12.31. Former world record-holder Keni Harrison had clocked 12.27 to finish behind Amusan in the semifinals as was in contention in the first half of the final but then faded and eventually jogged over the line in last place. She was disqualified after the race when she was deemed to have knocked down a hurdle with her hands. Alia Armstrong, who had won the NCAA title at Hayward Field earlier this summer, returned to claim her first World Championships and finished just off the podium in fourth place in a wind-aided 12.31
“The goal was to come out and to win this gold. I just did it,” said the Nigerian. “Honestly, I believe in my abilities, but I was not expecting a world record at these championships.”
“In the middle it was not the best because I kept hitting the hurdles, but thank God I came full through with the silver medal,” Anderson said. “I am just taking it step by step, and I’ll learn from this experience. It is overwhelming to get this experience from the Olympics and now to be a part of this race.”
“I got nervous, to be honest,” Camacho-Quinn said. “It kind of showed on my face, but I am just glad to come out here. I hit the last hurdle, but I ended up with a medal and I’ll take it.”
“Last year, after the Olympics, I said that hurdles is evolving,” Camacho-Quinn said. “So I feel like, from this point on, it is only going to be faster. We did pretty good. There were a lot of PRs out there today. I think we had the best event of the whole world champs. Just because of the times we put on, and I am very thankful.”
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