Nigerians pray for Amusan as Brume soars to women’s long jump final

• Adegoke pulls up as Italy’s Jacobs wins men’s 100 metres gold

After 10 days of action without a single medal to its name, Nigeria hopes that Tobi Amusan will change the narrative in the final of the 100 metres hurdles today.

Amusan yesterday did enough to qualify for the 100 metres women final, where she will confront Cunningham Gabriele of the United States, Visser Nadine of Netherlands, Harrison Kendra of the United States, Camacho-Quinn Jasmine of Puerto Rico, Jamaica’s Anderson Brittany, Charlton Devynne of Bahamas and Jamaica’s Tapper Megan.

Long jumper, Ese Brume, also gave Nigerians reason to hope when she made the women’s final.

The women’s long jump final will hold tomorrow with Brume battling against Trinidad and Tobago’s Tyra Gittens, Britney Reese of U.S., Australia’s Brooke Stratton, Ivana Spanovic of Serbia, Malaika Mihambo of Germany, Maryana Bekh-Romanchuk of Ukraine, Great Britain’s Irozuru Abigail, Malone Chantel of British Virgin Islands and Tara Davis of the United States.

Great Britain’s Jasmin Sawyers and Sweden’s Sagnia Khaddi make up the line up.

The country’s search for its first Tokyo 2020 Olympics medal did not yield any fruit yesterday as the athletes faltered when it mattered most.

Still reeling from Divine Oduduru’s disqualification for jumping the gun in the first round of the men’s 100 metres dash on Saturday, Nigerians prayed that one of Enoch Adegoke and Itsekiri Usheoritse would change the narrative in the event yesterday.

But they were left disappointed by both runners’ inability to finish their races due to hamstring problems. Itsekiri was the first to exit the competition when he pulled up injured in the first semifinal. Adegoke qualified for the final, but left the medal race half way, again through a hamstring injury.

In that final, Italy’s Marcell Jacobs produced the performance of a lifetime to win the gold medal. The Italian was the surprise champion racing from lane three dipping at the line in a time of 9.80 seconds in a new national record at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.

He beat a quality field including the USA’s Fred Kerley and Canadian ace Andre de Grasse that picked up the silver and bronze medals. Kerley followed in second place in a time of 9.84 with De Grasse winning his second straight 100m bronze clocking 9.89.

It was the first time since Athens 2004 that a new men’s 100m Olympic champion was crowned following the retirement of Jamaican legend Usain Bolt.