Amusan beaten by 2024 NCAA champion, Stark in stacked 100m hurdles race in Florida

World 100m hurdles record holder, Tobi Amusa failed to overcome a slow start and came second behind Grace Stark, the reigning NCAA outdoor champion at the Mike Holloway Pro Classic 2024, a World Athletics Continental Tour – Silver event held Saturday morning (Nigeria) in Gainesville, Florida.

The Nigerian ran 12.60 into a -1.7m/s headwind for second place with Stark who ran 12.31 to place second at the USA Paris Olympic trials running 12.58 to win.

Amusan had won her semifinal heat with an impressive 12.49, her second fastest time of the year with Stark running faster, 12.42, to take the first semifinal.

The 27 year old has not raced over the hurdles since June 17 when she won her fourth straight Nigerian high hurdles title and holds a 12.40 personal season’s best which she ran in may in Kingston, Jamaica.

World leader at 12.25, Masai Russell, the reigning US champion was third in 12.66 and lost for the second time on the night to Amusan while former world record holder, Kendra Harrison was sixth in 12.94.

Amusan will feel confident she can travel to Paris for her third Olympics with a realistic chance of making the podium as she bids to become the first Nigerian to win a World outdoor title and Olympic title.

She told Grant Holloway at the finish line after her semifinal triump that the 100m hurdles has evolved with athletes running 12.3 to win at major championships