Sprint hurdler Tobiloba Amusan will be supported in her preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with $20,000 by her state governor, Dapo Abiodun after she became the latest adoptee in the adopt-an-athlete project initiated by the Youth and Sports Development Minister, Sunday Dare.
Amusan who hails from Ijebu-Ode in Ogun state was a finalist at the last World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar in 2019, placing fourth in 12.49 seconds and is seen as one of the athletes that could make the podium in Tokyo later this year.
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The 24-year-old year-old is the best sprint hurdler in Africa since Glory Alozie, another Nigerian who switched allegiance to Spain in 2001 and has won several titles for the country including the 100m hurdles at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and at the 2015 and 2019 African Games.
The former African U-20 champion holds the African Games record in the event and remains the second fastest African woman over both the 60m hurdles (7.84 seconds) and the 100m hurdles (12.48 seconds).
Currently ranked the fourth best sprint hurdler in the world by World Athletics, Amusan returned to outdoor action for the first time this season on Saturday, finishing sixth in 13.10 seconds at the United States Track and Field (USATF) Grand Prix in Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon in the United States of America.
Amusan was a semifinalist in her debut at the Olympics four years ago in Rio de Janeiro, placing third in the second semifinal heat in 12.91 seconds and the petite athlete will be hoping to go two notches higher in Tokyo by first making the final and then the podium to become the second Nigerian sprint hurdler to win a medal in the event after Alozie who won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in Australia.
