Tobi Amusan
‘It was something that had been brewing for a while.’ –
Lacena Golding-Clarke
By Rasheed Adewuyi
Ex-athlete and Jamaican International Lacena Golding-Clarke has said Tobi Amusan’s world record run at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA, in July ‘was something that had been brewing for a while.’
Golding-Clarke, an Olympian and 2002 Commonwealth Games champion, is the coach of reigning World 100m hurdles champion, Amusan.
A former sprint hurdler representing Jamaica at three Olympic Games and five World Championships says she knew the 25-year-old Nigerian would break the world record and expected her to be close at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, in 2019.
“In 2019, before we traveled to Doha (for the World Championships), I sort of had an inclination that she may come close, but that she might run in the 12.2s,” she said in a World Athletics’ gender leadership podcast.
“In 2020, during the pandemic, we trained so hard. I felt then that Tobi could, but I did not expect the world record to be broken with such a time. I thought she could go on 12.19 or 12.18, but I am happy that I was a part of it. Hoping for a world record every year, but this year it all just happened at once,” Golding-Clarke said.
Amusan has been under the watchful eye of Golding-Clarke since 2016 and her days at the University of Texas at El Paso, where the Jamaican helped to take her from a 13.11 athlete to a 12.12 athlete.
Initially, “Tobi had it in her,” Golding-Clarke said. Still, the technical work needed attention, so the two slowly built Amusan’s general strength, followed by her mental focus, to ensure that Tobi would be ready to overcome all ten barriers. The guide for 2022 was to work on speed and to hold the hurdle rhythm through to the finish line.
Amusan is one of the athletes selected by 1AAF for the best athlete award later this year.
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