World Athletics nominates Amusan for women athlete of the year

World Athletics (WA) has nominated Nigerian sprinter Tobi Amusan for the 2022 women’s world athlete of the year.

The body noted that Amusan and other nominees were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.

The federation said the five finalists will be determined by a three-way voting process.

World Athletics said votes will be cast online via the World Athletics social media platforms.

“Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube this week; a ‘like’ on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote,” WA said.

It added that the World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25% of the final result.

The body added that the vote will close at midnight on Monday, October 31 and winners will be revealed on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December.

Amusan won the 100m hurdles gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in a time of 12.30 seconds.

She became the first Nigerian track and field athlete and the second in history to successfully defend a Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles title. Amusan won a gold medal at two editions of the games.

The 25-year-old also broke the 100-meter world record at the World Athletics Championship in Oregon, the USA in a record time of 12.12 seconds.

Amusan became the only Nigerian athlete in history to complete a grand slam of titles at the continental, Commonwealth and world levels after winning gold at the 22nd African Athletics championships in Mauritius in June and the World Athletics Championships at Oregon in August.

The other contenders competing for the prize are the Jamaican duo of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, Chase Ealey of the US and Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela, Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, Sydney McLaughlin of the US, Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Kimberly Garcia of Peru.