‘Welldone, return home’, First lady Tinubu congratulates Tobi Amusan
The First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu has congratulated World Hurdles record holder, Tobi Amusan after she lost her World Championship title to Jamaican Danielle Williams.
The 2022 world champion failed to defend her title as she placed 6th in the final at the ongoing World Athletics Championship in Budapest on Thursday.
The first lady wrote on her Twitter page: “Well done our beloved Tobi. We are proud of you. Return home to refresh yourself for the victory that awaits you.”
A loss in the final for Amusan who looked out of form after a turbulent preparation period means that as it stands, Team Nigeria is yet to record a medal on Day 6 of the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Recall that Amusan, who despite the loss retains her world record, 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.
Amusan was a huge medal hopeful as 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.
30-year-old, Danielle Williams, who previously won in Beijing in 2015 and Amusan refers to as her best friend on the track won the title in a season-best of 12.43s.
Amusan said: “She is the only person I can call my friend in the hurdle – She is genuine and she has been supporting me through it all.
“Am just glad that I was in the race to witness her win the world title and am just tapping from grace, hoping by next year I get my gold medal back.”
Olympic champion, Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn came second in 12.44s and USA Kendra Harrison came third in 12.46s while World champion, Amusan came 6th in 12.62s in her third consecutive final.
Amusan also apologised to all her supporters across the globe if she had disappointed them with her below-par performance, adding that she would come back stronger.
In an interview with journalists after the race, Amusan admitted it was a difficult experience for her to get into the final and said, it was quite “a journey getting into the final” despite all she had gone through in the last couple of weeks.
Amusan said: “I just want to say a huge thank you to who has been supporting me through the ups and downs, Ya’ll stood by me, kept praying for me, God Bless you all, I am sorry I might have let you all down, but we will back stronger definitely.
“Yeah, it’s a tough one; nobody likes to lose but considering what I have gone through in the past couple of months, I’m so grateful that I came out.”
Vanguardngr.com
