Nigeria’s 100 metres hurdles star, Tobi Amusan, has been nominated for the 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards 2023, Completesports.com reports.
This was announced on the Twitter handle of Laureus on Monday, 20 February.
Amusan is shortlisted in the World Breakthrough of the Year category alongside five other contestants.
The other nominees in the category are tennis stars Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina, semi-finalist at Qatar 2022 World Cup Atlas Lions of Morocco, American figure skater Nathan Chen and American professional golfer Scott Scheffler.
Amusan’s nomination for the World Breakthrough of the Year award is not unconnected to her impressive performance on the track in 2022.
In June 2022, Amusan defended her 100 m hurdles title at the African Championships in Mauritius with a time of 12.57 s.
The 25-year-old entered the World Championshipsheld in Eugene, Oregon in July as a medal contender after back-to-back fourth-place finishes.
In the heats, she again bettered her African record with a time of 12.40 s, improving by a further 0.01 s.
In the semi-final, Amusan set a new world record of 12.12 seconds, breaking the previous best of 12.20 s set by American Kendra Harrison in 2016 and becoming the first Nigeria’s world record holder in an athletics event.
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It was the largest improvement for a world record in the 100 m hurdles in 42 years. She bested her time once again in the final, running 12.06 s (2.5 m/s wind assisted, thus not a legal WR), becoming the first Nigeria’s world champion at the World Athletics Championships.
In August at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Amusan successfully defended her title, winning her second consecutive gold medal in the 100 m hurdles with a new Games record of 12.30 s. She also helped power Nigeria’s women’s 4 × 100 m relay team to gold.
She competed in her specialist event at the Lausanne Diamond Race meet later that month, finishing second with a time of 12.60 s, behind reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.
Amusan wrapped up her long and successful 2022 campaign by winning 100 m hurdles at the Zürich Diamond League final event with a 12.29 s performance to retain her title.
She finished ahead of, 2–4, Tia Jones, Britany Anderson, and Camacho-Quinn, setting a new meet record in the process.
Meanwhile, 2022 World Cup winning captain, Lionel Messi will contest with PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award.
The other contestants in the six-man shortlist are NBA star Stephen Curry, legendary tennis player Rafael Nadal, Formula 1 star Max Verstappen Pole Vaulter Mondo Duplantis.
Other categories are Sportswoman of the Year,
Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability, Laureus Sport for Good Award, Team of the Year, Sportsperson of the Year and World Comeback of the Year.
First held in 2000, the Laureus World Sports Awards honours the greatest and most inspirational sporting triumphs of the year and showcases the work of Laureus Sport for Good.
Winners, who will be announced in spring, will be decided by 71 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy – Olympic champions, world record holders.
By James Agberebi
