Believe in yourself, Amusan urges Nigerian youths

World 100m hurdles champion and record holder Tobi Amusan, a nominee for the Women’s World Athlete of The Year 2022 award, has urged young Nigerians not to give up on their dreams. The world’s fastest 100m hurdler and Commonwealth Games Champion, stated this in an interview with BBC Yoruba.

“Young people, don’t let anyone throw cold water on your mind that you are not on the right path, believe that what you want in your heart, you can do it, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it or that you are not discouraged that the right path is right, it doesn’t go there.”

Amusan had a fantastic 2022, breaking the 100m hurdles world record on her way to winning gold at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon in a time of 12.12 seconds.She backed up that performance by striking gold again at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, before retaining her Diamond League Trophy in Zurich in a new meet record of 12.29s. The previous record, which stood for 22 years, was held by American legend, Gail Devers.

The Ijebu-Ode-born athlete further disclosed that she started playing football before venturing into athletics after realising it is her path to success.

“I first started playing football, but I realised that my path did not go there.”

After narrowly missing out on global medals in 2021 and 2019, Nigerian sprint hurdler Amusan established herself as the world No.1 in 2022. World Athletics recently ratified Amusan’s women’s world 100m hurdles record set at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, the United States.