August 02, (THEWILL) – Team Nigeria’s quest for places in the medals table suffered another loss after strong favourite for a podium finish Oluwatobiloba Ayomide Amusan ended her final race of the women’s 100m hurdles at the Olympics Games in Tokyo, Japan, in fourth place.
It was a heartbreaking finale to her exciting participation so far as she had taken to the tracks with so much gut, passion and zeal to keep ahead of the competition every time all the way to the final. In her first ever final, however, the competition was just too strong though her time of 12.60s was only 0.05s off the bronze medal finish.
The bronze rather went to Jamaica’s Megan Tapper who crossed the line in 12.55s behind America’s Kendra Harrison and her time of 12.52s. The gold medal was claimed by Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in 12:37s for her country’s second ever Olympic gold.
THEWILL recalls that Camacho-Quinn had set an Olympic record in semi-final 3 on Sunday with her race time of 12.26s putting her over a third of a second clear of the nearest challenger and improving on her personal best record. It was also a top-six time in the history of female hurdles.
The final brought an end to Nigeria’s medal quest in another track and field hope and was a crushing blow for the athlete herself. Amusan reposed confidence in her progress and believed she had put in everything to not just participate in the Tokyo Games but write her name in the story of the competition with a podium finish.
Like Gloria Alozie had done for Nigeria 21 years ago at the Olympics in Sydney, Australia, where she finished with a silver medal for the country, Amusan was billed to become Nigeria’s second medal winner in the women’s 100m hurdles event. She had shown she had what it took in her brilliant racing to the final and ran herself as close as possible to bronze.
The UTEP’s 2017 NCAA 100m hurdles champion took off her mark to a tough initial 25 meters of the race, which did not give her the best take off boost and that was costly in the end. She brilliantly recovered when it appeared she was out of contention, to chase down the leading pack in the final 50 meters.
As the photo finish of the race illustrated, Amusan leaned in at the finish as much as possible to improve her chances of reaching for bronze at the very least. She came despairingly close but was not able to close the fractions of gap between herself and Jamaica’s Tapper, who got third place.
It is the cruelest of misses when it comes to Olympics finals to finish fourth and be left to imagine the different scenarios that could have changed one’s fortunes and make all the efforts to come so close worth it in the end. However, Amusan can build on her progress so far ahead of the Paris, France 2024 Games.
For Nigeria, there will be another medal chase in the female 200m race after Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha qualified for semi-final 3 on Monday. Nwokocha finished third in heat 1 behind Cote d’Ivoire’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou and Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
