World 100m hurdles champion and record holder Tobi Amusan is delighted to have been nominated for the Women’s World Athlete of the Year 2022 award.
The 25-year-old is among the 10 women athletes released Wednesday morning by World Athletics as nominees for the award.
Amusan has had a fantastic 2022, breaking the 100m hurdles world record on her way to winning gold at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon in a time of 12.12 seconds.
She backed up that performance by striking gold again at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, before retaining her Diamond League Trophy in Zurich in a new meet record of 12.29s. The previous record, which stood for 22 years, was held by American legend, Gail Devers.
Amusan, who last year made history as the first Nigerian in the Diamond League era to win the Diamond Trophy, also made history at this year’s Commonwealth Games, when she became the first Nigerian track and field athlete to successfully defend a Commonwealth Games title and the first to win gold in two Commonwealth Games.
Amusan is also the African champion and record holder after retaining her title in Mauritius in June.
The athlete, in a post on social media, said she was honoured to be nominated for the glamorous award, adding that she would love to win it.
“I’m short of words! Through the grace of God, I have achieved so many firsts by a Nigerian’ and this is yet another one,” Amusan posted on her Facebook page.
“I’m so honoured to be selected as a World Athlete of the Year nominee and the first Nigerian ever to reach this height. I have twice been named Nigerian Athlete of the Year by Athletic Heat platform, but this is my first international nomination and I want us to win it!”
A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.
The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms.
Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube; a ‘like’ on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.
The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 per cent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 per cent of the final result.
Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Monday October 31.
At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men’s finalists will be announced by World Athletics.
The winners will be revealed on World Athletics’ social media platforms early December.
Meanwhile, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria has called on Nigerians to vote massively for Amusan, as she bids to become the first Nigerian to be named World Athlete of the Year.
AFN president, Tonobok Okowa, said Amusan deserved to be crowned the best in the world this year.
“It’s been a very successful year for Nigerian athletes and Tobi is the icing on the cake of the incredible season we’ve had,” Okowa said.
“The fact that Tobi was nominated is a positive development for us as a federation and a nation as no Nigerian athlete has ever made it to this level.
“Now we need to go a step further by playing our part to see that our darling Tobi is crowned the best in the world come December. It’s a three-way voting process that will determine the chances of Tobi and our votes will contribute a quarter of the total votes needed.”
