Amusan beats Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon and Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey who are world champions in 1500m and 10000m respectively to win
By Kehinde Okeowo
Nigerian track queen and World record holder in 100 hurdles, Tobi Amusan has been named as Africa’s ‘best female athlete’ for the Year 2022.
Amusan emerged the winner, after beating Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon (1500m world champion) and Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey (10000m world champion), who were ranked second and third respectively after enjoying a phenomenal year.
The honour was conferred on Amusan by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) on Tuesday. December 20 after she had earlier been ranked the fifth best female athlete in 2022, according to World Athletics.
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.
The award is an acknowledgment of her unprecedented feats in the period under review despite losing the World female Athlete of the year to America’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
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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.
Letsile Tebogo and Faith Cherotich were also voted as Africa’s best male and female prospects, respectively.
