Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, a world record holder, and 10 other athletes have been nominated for the 2022 World Athlete of the Year Award.
Amusan and other candidates were named for the December award in a statement released yesterday by World Athletics’ Senior Media Relations Manager, Maggie Durand.
The Jamaican speed sensation Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, American Chase Ealey, Kimberly Garcia (Peru), Shericka Jackson (Jamaica), Faith Kipyegon (Kenya), and Shaunae Miller-Uibo will all compete against the Nigerian 100-meter hurdler (Bahrain).
Amusan made big headlines across the globe in July this year, when she broke the World Record twice on her way to winning the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles.
A few days after setting a world 100 metres hurdles record of 12.12 seconds at the World Championship in Oregon, United States, Amusan clinched a gold medal at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in England before adding the Diamond League gold medal in Zurich.
Speaking on her nomination for the award, yesterday, Amusan said that she was honoured to have been considered among the best 10 women in the world for the outgoing year.
“Through the grace of God, I have achieved so many ‘firsts by a Nigerian’ and this is yet another one.
I am so honoured to be selected as a World Athlete of the Year Nominee and the first Nigerian ever to reach this height.
“I have twice been named Nigerian Athlete of the Year by the Athletic Heat platform but this is my first international nomination and I want us to win it,” the athlete wrote on her Facebook wall.
The finalists will be chosen through a three-way voting process in the interim.
Fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media channels, while the World Athletics Council and World Athletics Family will cast their ballots by email.
A “like” on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter counts as one vote. Each finalist will have a unique graphic shown on each of these social media platforms.
The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 percent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 percent of the final result.
On Monday, October 31, the World Athletes of the Year voting ends at midnight. Five women’s finalists and five men’s finalists will be revealed by World Athletics following the voting process. In the first week of December, World Athletics will announce the winners on its social media channels.
Amusan is vying to become the first Nigerian to be voted World Athlete of the Year by World Athletics, and Tonobok Okowa, president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), has urged Nigerians to vote for her in record numbers.
Okowa believes Amusan is not only deserving of the nomination but also merits being crowned the best in the world this year.
“2022 has been a very successful year for Nigerian athletes and Tobi is the icing on the cake of the incredible season we have had,” Okowa stated yesterday.
“The fact that Tobi was nominated is a positive development for us as a federation and a nation as no Nigerian athlete has ever made it to this level. Now we need to go a step further by playing our part to see that our darling Tobi is crowned the best in the world come December,” he added.
