TOBI Amusan brought a measure of sunshine to the Nigerian camp barely two hours after the devastating news of Blessing Okagbare’s suspension for a failed drug test.
Nigeria’s biggest athletics star Okagbare was suspended in the early hours of Saturday by the Athletics Integrity Unit of World Athletics after human growth hormone was found in her system following a doping test days to the Games.
Okagbare was due to run in the women’s 100m semi-finals but has been kicked out of Tokyo 2020 and provisionally suspended.
Amusan shook off the bad news to win Heat 3 of the women’s 100m hurdles in 12.72 seconds to advance to the semi-finals.
She beat Jamaica’s Yanick Thompson to second place (12.74s), while Pia Skrzyszowska ran a personal best time of 12.75s to finish third.
Devynne Charlton of Bahamas claimed the fourth and last qualifying slot from the race in 12.84 seconds.
Amusan’s 12.72s was the sixth best time in the five heats, with Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (12.41s) the quickest.
The Nigerian is drawn in Heat 1 of Sunday’s semi-finals, where she will be up against the likes of Costa Rica’s Andrea Carolina Vargas and United States of America’s Christina Clemons.
