Tobi Amusan Wins Nigeria’s First Gold Medal at the African Championships in Ghana
Duro Ikhazuagbe
World record holder in the 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, on Wednesday evening won Nigeria’s first gold medal with 12.83seconds at the ongoing 2026 CAA African Senior Athletics Championships in Accra, Ghana.
The gold is her fourth in the Championship, having won the 2015, 2019 and 2024 editions consecutively.
Another US-based Nigerian sprint hurdler, Adaobi Tabugbo, settled for the bronze. Zimbabwe’s Ashley Miller took the silver .
Sadly for African track and field, CAA and the local organisers were still grappling with fixing the dysfunctional timing device in use for the competition on Day 2, a situation that made it difficult to really know how fast Amusan and the other athletes ran. The event was Amusan’s first 100m hurdles competition of the outdoor season.
The Nigerian speedster didn’t leave anyone in doubt of coming to Ghana to Win her fourth African title. She dominated the event from the heat, through the semifinal before claiming the gold yesterday evening.
In the women’s 100m, Rosemary Chukwuma, was initially announced as the winner of the event until few minutes later when video replace of the photo finished confirmed her for the silver medal. Cameroon’s Kole Etame Herverge was declared the winner of the short sprint.
In the men’s version of the short sprint, Chidera Nzeakor won bronze for Team Nigeria.
On the opening day of the competition, Divine Oladipo won silver with a throw of 55.37m in the women’s Discuss event, while Obiageri Amaechi secured bronze with 53.23m to give Nigeria an encouraging start in Accra.
Meanwhile, Ghanaian sports journalist, Yaw Ofosu, has described the chaotic situation at the competition as “an absolute farce.”
In a post on X yesterday, Ofosu said: “What is an athletic meet without the times the athletes finished? How are we as journalists supposed to tell the stories? How do we know how well they have done here in comparison to what they did in other meets? Athletes finish races and are asking for their times and it’s crickets…,” he explained.
Ofosu expressed his disappointment at the embarrassing start to a competition that Ghana had known it would host since winning the bid over Botswana at the CAA Congress in Douala, Cameroon in June 2024.
He also insisted that there was no space for the media to work (media centre). “The media tribune had Jama singers screaming so much you can’t hear a thing or focus to do your job.
“We had 7,100m men’s heats on Tuesday and the starting gun faltered about four times – affecting the athletes. It’s a shame,” Ofosu wrote, while hoping that the situation improves in the next few days.
Nigerian sprinter, Favour Ashe was one of the victims of the faulting starter’s gun in the heat event of the 100m. He was initially disqualified for beating the gun. But on Nigeria’s protest, that decision was reversed and was asked to race alone to qualify for the semifinal.
Nigerian sports journalist and photographer, Christopher Maduewesi, also
posted on X: “By the way, this is the first African championship that I am covering, where journalists have been gleefully told to purchase their own data for internet.”