By Victor Kanayo
Nigerian sprint star, Tobi Amusan, on Sunday night bounced back to victory as she won women’s 100m hurdles at The Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF) Berlin 2022.
Amusan clocked 12.45s (-0.3), winning by more than one-tenth over her closest challenger Tia Jones of the USA who could only manage 12.58s.
Speaking after her victory Amusan said, “It has been a long season, but I am still alive. I just wanted to finish strong today. I was here to execute.
“I need to work on what I need to work on, but it is alright. There is always room for improvement. I need to improve my start and my finish.”
Jamaican Megan Tapper came third in 12.66s.
ISTAF is an annual track and field athletics meeting at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. It was first held in July 1921.
Amusan ran within the same time that got her a second-place finish at the Lausanne Diamond League meet last month.
The 25-year-old ran 12.45s to finish second behind Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico who clocked 12:34s to set a new meeting record. Jones came in at 12.47s to finish third.
Amusan has not been able to replicate her world record of 12:12s in the women’s 100m hurdles which she recorded at the semi-finals of the World Athletics Championship back in July, 2022.
Her best performance since then has been at the Commonwealth Games in August.
She finished 12.30 seconds to set a new Games record and retain the title she won in Gold Coast, Australia four years ago.
Amusan will be competing in the Diamond League final this week in Zurich, Switzerland.
The Nigerian will be hoping to do better than her last outing in Lausanne.
Another Nigerian, Ese Brume, who clinched her first win at the Diamond League Meet, winning the Women’s Long Jump event at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, Belgium on Friday, finished second in the women’s long jump event in Berlin.
The Commonwealth champion jumped 6.78m to finish behind world and Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo, who won with a leap of 6.92m.
Brume got her first-ever victory in Brussels, winning with a distance of 6.83m, having finished second in Doha (2018) and Eugene (2022).
