Nigerian track and field athlete, Oluwatobiloba Ayomide Amusan has been named among the five finalists for the Women’s World Athlete of the Year 2022 award. Tobi is the current World, Commonwealth and African champion in the 100 m hurdles, as well as, the record holder in those three competitions.
Amusan became the first Nigerian world champion in an athletics event when she won the 2022 World Championships 100 m hurdles gold medal, setting the current world record of 12.12 seconds in the semifinal, followed up by a wind-assisted 12.06 s in the final. She won back-to-back Commonwealth and African titles in 2018 and 2022 in the 100 m hurdles and is also a two-time African Games champion in the event.
Tobi has received many awards, among which are national awards from the Nigerian President. According to World Athlete Tobi Amusan, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Kimberly Garcia, Sydney McLaughlin, and Yulimar Rojas.
The five athletes, who represent five countries from three area associations, have achieved sensational performances across a range of athletics disciplines in 2022, at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world.
The finalists are (in alphabetical order):
Tobi Amusan, NGR – World 100m hurdles champion – Diamond League, Commonwealth, and African 100m hurdles champion – Set a world 100m hurdles record of 12.12
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, JAM – World 100m champion, claiming a fifth gold medal in the event – Diamond League 100m champion – Ran a world-leading 10.62 among her record seven sub-10.70 100m races of the season
Kimberly Garcia, PER – World 20km race walk champion, winning Peru’s first-ever World Athlefirst-everionships medal – World 35 km race walk champion in a South American record to complete a race walk double – World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships 20km bronze medallist
Sydney McLaughlin, USA – World 400m hurdles and 4x400m champion – Broke the world 400m hurdles record with 51.41 at the US Championships – Further improved the world record to 50.68 to win the world title
Yulimar Rojas, VEN – World indoor and outdoor triple jump champion – Diamond League triple jump champion – Improved her world record to 15.74 m in Belgrade
According to World Athlete, the voting procedure for 2022 World Athletes of the Year
A three-way voting process determined the finalists.
The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans logged their decisions online via the World Athletics social media platforms, where a record 1.3 million votes were registered.
The World Athletics Council’s vote counted for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes each counted for 25% of the final result.
Voting closed on 31 October.
The World Athletes of the Year will be announced on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December, as part of the World Athletics Awards 2022.
