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“I Was About To Quit Athletics Before Becoming World Champion” – Tobi Amusan
Tobi Amusan, a record-breaking world champion in the 100 meter hurdles, has admitted that she nearly gave up athletics before winning the title.
The 25-year-old athlete won the gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles event at the 2022 World Championships last year, breaking the previous record of 12.12 seconds in the semi-final and 12.06 seconds in the final. She is the first Nigerian to win a world championship in athletics.
Prior to defending her Diamond League Trophy in Zurich with a new meet record time of 12.29 seconds, she had won gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Tobi Amusan stated that prior to her record-breaking year (2022) she was always coming fourth and it felt so tiring. She stated that she feels people can still do something great when they feel it’s over.
In a chat with Justin Tuckey, the Ogun-born hurdler said winning the World Championships 100m hurdles gold medal at the World Championships in Oregon was a turning point in her career. She also stated that she had made up her mind to dump athletics and go back to school.
“That was the moment of ‘did I just do that?’. But yes, it was months, years, and a crazy amount of training and hard work that people saw in 12secs. Sweat, tears, heartbreaks and on the verge of quitting literally every other year. You know seeing it unfold at that moment, with my coach in the stands was just ‘ma we did it’, you know it was just crazy,” Amusan said.
“That year, I was like if something doesn’t go right… And I felt like it was what actually got me into doing my Masters because I was looking forward to what if the season doesn’t go right? In as much as we want to do great things, God approves whatever thing we want to do, but then it’s more of I’ve been putting in the work and showing up every year and it was just fourth, fourth, so I was just tired,” Amusan added.
“It was a moment of God, you can still do something even when you’re broken and you feel like it’s over, because 2022 was supposed to be like my quit year.
“I mean if God doesn’t want to show up I can as well do something with my energy. So, it was just the moment I wanted to quit and God just showed up miraculously, so it was a huge moment for myself, my coach, my family and everyone who supported me.”