Colin Jackson: ‘Tobi Amusan Can Break World Record Again, Capable Of Running 12.00 Seconds!’

 

Former World 110m hurdles record holder and two-time World champion Colin Jackson has tipped Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan to break the 100m hurdles world record again.

Amusan stunned the world last month in Eugene, Oregon, USA when she ran 12.12 seconds to set a new world record in the 100m hurdles enroute to her historic title win.

Jackson, whose 12.91 seconds world 110m hurdles record stood for over 10 years also believes the 25 year old Amusan is capable of running 12.00 seconds in the event after a +2.5m/s tail wind denied her a second world record in Oregon after she stormed to a 12.06 seconds finish to win the hugh hurdles title.

Amusan also rewrote the Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles record at the XX11 edition of the competition in Birmingham early August, running 12.30 seconds to smash the 16 year old 12.65 seconds record set by Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster-Hylton.

The Nigerian achieved this feat in the presence of Jackson at the Alexander stadium in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Jackson, twice winners of the 110m hurdles at the Games described Amusan as incredible after the Nigerian shattered the Games record to become the first Nigerian to successfully defend a Commonwealth Games title in track and field and the second woman after Australia’s Sally Pearson to do so in the history of the Games..

”Incredible, I absolutely love what she’s doing at the moment. I’ll describe her as so technically good, efficient, effective, beautiful sprinting strike, easily married with slick hurdling technique and you could see why she is a world record holder. She has what I describe as a speed hurdles endurance, she never slows down over the barriers.

”She is as fast as in hurdle two as she is over the 10th hurdle and that is why she is the best in the world,’ said Jackson in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Birmingham during the Games.

On the controversy that surrounded Amusan’s 12.12 seconds record at the World Championships in Oregon, the Welshman said the record did not come to him as a surprise.

“It didn’t surprise me because she is so smooth. And I’ve been saying to everybody that if you just put your hand over where Amusan was and the rest of the field, they were running really well. And she was metres in front and that for me just says the class of the act”, Jackson explained.

Jackson said Amusan further proved her new status as the undisputed queen of the high hurdles with the manner she took down the Commonwealth Games record in a cold, Birmingham morning.

“She came to the Commonwealth Games early in the morning, just a little bit tired and she still ran one of the fastest of all timeS. I cannot wait to see her at the next Olympic Games and it’s going to be exciting”.

He predicted the Nigerian will run faster than the 12.12 seconds world record she ran in Oregon.

“Yes. I said at the World Championship, I think she can go close to 12 flat. She is that good”.

Jackson concluded that Nigeria should be proud of what the country has in Tobiloba Ayomide Amusan.

”I think Nigeria should really be proud of the athlete they’ve produced. She is flying the flag so well. I think you should be proud,” the recipient of the Most Excellent Order British Empire stated.