Tobi Amusan needs to be celebrated. What she achieved was a major feat by any means. But this is not the case. It is obvious that there are people who want to taint her achievements in controversy.
Amusan trainer is Lacena Golding-Clarke, a retired female hurdling athlete from Jamaica. She represented Jamaica at the Summer Olympics in 1996, 2000 and 2004, and took part in the World Championships in Athletics on five separate occasions. Probably it is not too surprising why Amusan achieved so much having a very successful and talented coach to work with/
Certain stories however have emerged since she got her win. Non more so than by Micheal Johnson who commented in his analysis for the BBC, questioned the accuracy of the timings in the event. Amusan smashed the world record set by 100m hurdler Kendra Harrison in 2016 by 0.08 seconds at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon Sunday.
‘’ I don’t believe 100h times are correct,” Johnson tweeted after the event. “World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set. And Cindy Sember quote after her PB/NR ‘I thoroughly I was running slow!’ All athletes looked shocked,” he added.
Johnson faced a backlash on Tweeter with one person tweeting that the American athlete “bitter.” Another wrote that “Just because it’s not an American WR doesn’t mean the times were incorrect.” Johnson was even accused of being ‘’racist’’.
Many who our correspondent spoke to accused commentators of trying to discredit the Nigerian athlete saying that if it was a Briton or American, there would have been no mention of the wind assisting her to break her own record she set earlier. One commented, ‘’was the wind only blowing in her lane’’? Another commented “why always me”? [A phrase synonymous with Mario Balotelli]. He added, ‘’why is it that if an African achieves, there is someone who would try to disparage what the person has done’’.
A tweet by Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) seems to again highlight racism at its finest. To attempt again to spoil a good record, to try to taint a feat that deserves celebration, a story in which he states how the same writer, @seaningle celebrated one describing the athlete as pushing boundaries and the other {Amusan} as shattering the world record because of the shoe she wore. @Nwankpa_A states in his tweet, “only one woman’s victory sparked a debate about her shoes. The other pushed boundaries”.
Mario Balotellis famous slogan highlights the feelings of most Africa people towards direct and indirect discrimination. ‘Why always us’?
