Paris Olympics: Amusan begins medal journey on easy note but the final will be a tough one

Team Nigeria ‘surebet’ for a podium appearance at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games Tobi Amusan also called Tobi Express by fans and athletics buffs begins her campaign in the 100m hurdles Wednesday morning in a relatively easy heat.

Amusan will be running in lane 9, heat one. There are five heats in the 100m hurdles, the first three in each of the five heats, and the three fastest losers advance to the semi-final.

With a season’s best of 12.40 seconds, only American Alaysha Johnson with a season’s best of 12.31 seconds has run faster than Amusan this year among her competitors.

Amusan, who set a world 100m hurdles record of 12.12 in the semifinals of the 2022 World Championships before going on to take gold, is expected to qualify for the semifinals slated for Friday but it is in the Saturday final that she has to reproduce her Oregon form to win a medal.

Currently ranked joint 12th in the world list with a season’s best of 12.40 seconds, set in Kingston, Jamaica in May.

Amusan’s tough competitors for podium appearance who are also expected to join her in the final include two hurdlers who have been inspiring since their national trials which have raised realistic hopes of winning medals in Paris.

One is Masai Russell who won the American trials in a championship record of 12.25, which put her top of this year’s world list and moved her to equal fourth on the world all-time list.

Another is the 2023 US indoor champion Johnson (in the same heat one with Amusan), who was second in a personal best of 12.31, and 2024 NCAA champion Grace Stark, who clocked the same time, securing third place in a final where 2019 world champion Nia Ali was fourth and former world record-holder Keni Harrison was sixth.

Jamaican Ackera Nugent, the 2021 world U20 champion and 2023 NCAA gold medallist, who clocked a national record of 12.28 at the Jamaican trial is also another threat.

Ditto Danielle Williams, who regained the world title in Budapest eight years after first winning it in Beijing.

 France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela, who won the European Championships in Rome in a championship and national record of 12.31 also has what it takes to stop Our Girl.

Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion who took silver behind Williams at last year’s World Championships, has shown huge consistency throughout the season, winning the first two Diamond League meetings in China and claiming victory in Hengelo in a season’s best of 12.39 that places her joint 10th on the world list.

Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas missed a medal at last year’s World Championships in Budapest by one place, but her achievement in winning the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in a world record of 7.65 has raised hopes that she could transfer and extend that speed in the longer event to good effect in Paris.

Her season’s best of 12.49, set at the opening Diamond League meeting of the season in Xiamen in April, leaves her currently placed 12th in this season’s world list. She looks very capable of surpassing her PB of 12.44, set in the heats in Budapest.

There are other strong challengers for the podium with Amusan including in-form Nadine Visser of the Netherlands, currently joint sixth in the world list with her clocking of 12.36 at La Chaux-de-Fonds on July 14, and Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska, European champion in 2022 and bronze medallist last month, who followed her home in 12.37.

Also look out for 22-year-old Ditaji Kambundji, who set a Swiss record of 12.40 in winning European silver behind Samba-Mayela, and Cindy Sember, who earned a third Olympic appearance by winning a fifth British title.

With these tough co-competitors, Amusan needs the grace of God and must reproduce the form that gave her the world record and gold medal in Oregon to make the podium on Saturday.