Nigeria’s Tobiloba Amusan has been named Africa’s Best Female Athlete for the Year 2022.
The latest honour was conferred on Amusan by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) on Tuesday.
Winner at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where she set a record and also the World Championships in Oregon, where she set a new World Record of 12.12s in the Hurdles event, Amusan has been far above her contemporaries this year.
She also won the Diamond League trophy for the second successive season, highlighting her rating as one of the world’s best and Africa’s undisputed number one at the moment.
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon and Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey who are both world champions in the 1500m and 1000m were ranked second and third respectively behind Amusan who has enjoyed a phenomenal year.
Amusan will be proud of her unprecedented feats in the period under review despite failing to claim the global accolade of the World female Athlete of the year won by America’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
Amusan started 2022 with a successful defence of her African Championships title in Mauritius in early June.
Thereafter she was off to Paris to improve on her 12.42 seconds African record as she ran 12.41 seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.
In Benin City, Edo State, at the All Nigerian Championships, Amusan effortlessly erased the 12.63 seconds record set in 1997 by Angela Atede as she won another national title for herself, having run an impressive 12.58 seconds.
The biggest moment for Amusan was in Eugene, Oregon where she produced one of the biggest surprises of the World Championships.
The Nigerian superstar sped to a world record 12.12 seconds in the semifinals of the 100m hurdles, following it with a wind-assisted 12.06 seconds in the final to win gold.
Best Male
While Amusan was voted Africa’s best female athlete, Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco emerged as the continent’s best male athlete
A world champion and winner of the Diamond League Final, Bakkali was unbeaten in all his 2022 races.
The Kenyan duo of Eluid Kipchoge and Emmanuel Korir finished 2nd and 3rd respectively behind the Moroccan.
Meanwhile, sprinters Letsile Tebogo and Faith Cherotich have been voted as Africa’s best male and female prospects, respectively.
