Tobi Amusan makes the five woman shortlist for the 2022 Women’s Athlete of the Year

NIGERIA'S track queen Tobi Amusan has been named in the list of five finalists for the 2022 Women’s Athlete of the Year putting her in contention to win the World Athletics Awards 2022.

At the World Athletics Championship in August, Ms Amusan set the world ablaze by setting two world records in the hurdles, running 12.12 and 12.06 seconds in the semi finals and finals respectively. She cleared a highly talented field to win Nigeria's first ever gold medal at a world athletics championship, setting the tournament alight in the process.

A few weeks later, she then won Commonwealth gold in Birmingham in the UK, establishing herself as an undisputed world class athlete. After clinching gold in the women's 100 metres hurdles with a tournament record of 10.30 seconds, she also then got the women's 4x100 relax team off as they beat England and Jamaica to Commonwealth gold.

In recognition of these feats, Governor Dapo Abiodun of her home Ogun State has named Ms Amusan as an Ogun State sports ambassador. He added that she can also train at the Ijebu Ode Stadium whenever she was in the country and as a result, this would prompt his administration to fast-track the renovation of the stadium.

Crowning off what has been a brilliant year for Tobi, World Athletics has released the name of the athletes shortlisted for this year's award, with her name being on it. Veteran Jamaican athlete Shelly-Ann Fraser- Pryce, Peru’s Kimberly Garcia, Sydney McLaughlin of the US and Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas are the other athletes in the running for the award.