National Sports Festival: Tobi Amusan breaks another record

The 19th National Sports Festival rounding off in Abuja will for long be remembered as one with different shades of records.

The athletics event at the festival has provided some breathtaking performances, and yet another record was set on Saturday in the 100m Women’s Hurdles where Team Delta’s Tobi Amusan won the gold.

Amusan ran unruffled in the final of the women’s 100m Hurdles, setting a new festival record of 13.04m to claim victory.

From 50m into the race, Amusan had already lost her challengers and at the end, she erased the previous of record Amaka Ogboegbunam of 13.45s which she set at the KADA 2009 games.

Day 4 of Athletics at the 19th National Sports Festival (NSF) had seen the duo of Queen Obisesan of Delta and Grace Anigbata of Bayelsa emerge as the standout athletes after the pair set new Festival Records in the Hammer Throw and Triple Jump respectively, while competing at the main bowl of the National Stadium, Abuja.

Obisesan, who is the former National Record holder in the event, erased Vivian Chukwuemeka’s 12-year-old record of 61.38m, which she set at the Gateway Games in 2006, replacing it with a superior mark of 64.96m. Sophiat Omizi of Oyo took Silver with 55.77m, and Olufunke Susan of Edo, the Bronze with 53.59m.

On Anigbata’s part, the African Champion extended her dominance in the sport as she added another GOLD to her burgeoning medals by winning the event in a new Festival Record of 13.76m. The African Champion surpassed Otonye Iworima’s former record of 13.60m set in 2006 at the Gateway Games.

Mercy Honesty of Akwa Ibom was a distant 2nd with a 13.10m jump, while Mercy Abire of Delta came 3rd after leaping to a distance of 13.01m.