It was another “near miss” for Team Nigeria on Monday at the ongoing 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo as medal hope Tobiloba Amusan failed to deliver.
Amusan, running from lane 6 in the women’s 100 metres hurdles final at the Olympic Stadium finished fourth after a time of 12.60 seconds.
It was 0.05 of a second behind Megan Tapper of Jamaica who clocked 12.55 to sneak in on the bronze medal from lane 9 just with a dip of her head.
The 24-year-old Nigeria’s performance was indeed an improvement, having ran 12.72 in round one and 12.62 in the semi-finals, But she was up against qualitative opposition.
Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn who holds the Olympic record of 12.26, set in the semi-finals on Sunday, won the event’s gold medal with a time of 12.37.
World record-holder Kendra Harrison of the U.S, who ran 12.20 at London in 2016, won the silver with 12.52.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Amusan now has the women’s 4x100m relay race to look forward to.