Olympics: Amusan Out Of 100m Hurdles Final

• As organisers disqualify men’s 4x400m team

World Record holder and Nigeria’s brightest prospect for a medal, Tobi Amusan on Friday morning further stretched the country’s woes at the ongoing Olympic Games in Paris by failing to progress into the Women’s 100 meters hurdles final

Clocking 12.55 seconds to finish third in the first heat of the semi-final, the 27-year-old Nigerian was placed outside the two automatic qualification spots and later edged to the non-automatic slots by athletes in other heats. 

She had a poor start off the block in lane six of her heat and was a couple of meters behind her opponents by the first few hurdles.

However, despite her push at recovery in the latter stage of the race, she had unfortunately been too far behind and could only dip for an agonising third-place finish in the race.

Her slim hope of gaining a qualification spot in the finals was eventually dashed in the third and final heat by Jaimaca’s Ackera Nugent and Samba-Mayela Cyrena of France who finished third and fourth in the heat with better times of 12.44 seconds and 12.52 seconds each.

Similarly, another disappointment for Team Nigeria athletics came in the men’s 4x400m as team was disqualified after one of the squad member stepped on the track line during the semi-final race.

The team had initially booked a place in the final after finishing second in the second heat of the semis, but Nigeria was disqualified following a review of the race by officials.