World Athletics Championships: Amusan draws Williams, Kambundji in 100m hurdles heat

Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan will fancy her chances of qualifying for her third straight semifinals in World Athletics Championships history when she files out for the third heat of the 100m hurdles first round on penultimate day of the ongoing competition.

The Nigerian, 25, has been drawn in a relatively easy first round heat with only the duo of Jamaica’s Danielle Williams and Switzerland’s Dijati Kambundji the tough nuts she needs to crack to be among the three automatic qualifiers for the semifinal.

Amusan is the fastest in the line up at 12.41 seconds and defeated Willaims four years ago to win the Commonwealth Games title in the Gold Coast, Australia.

However. the Jamaican denied the Nigerian the opportunity of winning her first World Championships medal three years ago in Doha where she edged Amusan to the bronze medal by two hundreth of a second (12.47 to 12.49).

The reigning African champion and record holder is bidding to become the second Nigerian woman after Glory Alozie to win a World Championships medal. She will also be targetting Alozie’s 12.44 seconds record at the Championships.

Amusan is her third trip to the championships. In her debut in 2017 she didn’t scale the hurdle to the final while three years ago she came agonisingly close to winning a medal, finishing fourth despite running inside 12.50 seconds thrice at the Championships.