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Based on the reactions garnered on all social media platforms, with most suggesting there may have been foul play on Tobi Amusan not winning the Female World Athlete of the Year Award.
There have been several reactions since the announcement of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone as the 2022 World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Tobi Amusan finishing as the first and second runner-up respectively.
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While some believe the American was deserving of the win, others feel the award should have gone to either the Jamaican or the Nigerian, who both had major impacts this year competing in a greater number of meets.
That said, both McLaughlin-Levrone and Amusan broke World Records (WR), while Fraser-Pryce, like an old wine, got better in almost all her races, running times never before seen at her age in athletics history.
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Before delving into the intricacies of who was more deserving and why fans feel there may have been foul play, especially against Tobi Amusan, let’s highlight the significant achievements of each athlete this season.
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11:45 - 20.02.2023
BREAKING Tobi Amusan becomes first Nigerian woman to be nominated for Laureus Sports Awards
Another prestigious nomination for Tobi Amusan, as she becomes the first Nigerian sportswoman to be nominated for the Laureus Sports Awards.
McLaughlin-Levrone
The World 400m Hurdles Champion broke the World Record on more than one occasion this year, with her final WR performance coming at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.
McLaughlin-Levrone opened her 2022 season with a super fast 51.61s, which at that point was the third-fastest time ever recorded, but the all-time list soon underwent further revisions. At the US Championships, she stormed to victory in 51.41s, taking 0.05s off the WR mark she set at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
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The 23-year-old obliterated her own World Record again by an astonishing 0.78s, running a jaw-dropping 50.68s to win her first senior World title in Oregon, and she followed it by anchoring the US team to another 4x400m victory with a blazing split time of 47.91s. By comparison, no other runner in the field ran a split time faster than 49.39s.
Fraser-Pryce
The Jamaican surpassed the 10.70s mark in the 100m seven times throughout this season and one of those performances – her 10.67s for the World title in Oregon – was a Championship Record (CR) which saw her become the first athlete to win five World titles in a single individual running event.
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18:10 - 19.03.2023
ATHLETICS Fraser-Pryce and Omanyala confirmed for Botswana Golden Grand Prix
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will kickoff her 2023 season, as Ferdinand Omanyala targets breaking his AR at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix.
Fraser-Pryce's win came almost fourteen years after her first global 100 m title, making her the oldest ever World Champion in any individual track event. She added 200m and 4x100m Silver medals, ending up with three medals at the championship.
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She capped her season at the Diamond League final in Zurich, winning her fourth 100m Diamond trophy in a Meeting Record (MR) of 10.65s.
In her 15th season of international racing, the 35-year-old sprint star continued to blaze a trail, proving the maxim that ‘wine gets better with age’, and is now hailed as the world’s greatest ever women’s sprinter.
Tobi Amusan
Her moment of glory came at the World Championships in Oregon, where she broke her own African Record (AR) of 12.41s with a new 12.40s time to win her 100m Hurdles heat.
However, this record became totally insignificant when she came back in the semis and stunned not just herself but the whole world by breaking the WR of 12.20s set by USA’s Keni Harrison in 2016 with an incredible 12.12s. She bested the time in the final with another magnificent 12.06s (2.5m/s) to win the title and be crowned Nigeria’s first outdoor World Champion and World Record holder.
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Less than two weeks after this historic moment, Amusan went to the Commonwealth Games and successfully retained her Commonwealth title setting a Games Record (GR) of 12.30s, then followed it up by running the lead-off leg of the Nigerian 4x100m Gold medal winning relay quartet.
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17:57 - 09.03.2023
ATHLETICS '2022 was supposed to be my quit year' - Amusan gives an emotional breakdown on breaking the WR
In an emotional and motivational interview, Tobi Amusan opened up on what it felt like running the World Record in Oregon, and how she started her Masters because of the fear of heartbreak.
She wrapped up her long and outstanding 2022 campaign at the Zürich Diamond League final, running a MR of 12.29s to retain her title, thereby becoming the first Nigerian athlete in history to attain this feat.
Voting procedure for the award
The voting was done via a three-way voting process to determine the finalists.The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans logged their decisions online via the World Athletics social media platforms where a record 1.3 million votes were registered.
The World Athletics Council’s vote counted for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes each counted for 25% of the final result.
Why Tobi Amusan should have won
From the voting procedure stated, the public votes counted for 25% of the final result. Amusan amassed the highest number of votes on all social media platforms amongst the three finalists, so she clearly won this aspect.
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23:30 - 19.12.2022
Tobi Amusan is Africa's highest ranked and fifth-best female athlete in the world
Tobi Amusan gets her highest ranked career position for the year ending.
Now, based on performance, she broke the World Record on more than one occasion at the World Championships. Even though Amusan's semifinal time of 12.12s is officially the World Record, her World title wind-aided winning time of 12.06s (2.5m/s) is also classified as a World Record, as that’s the fastest time ever run by an athlete in all wind conditions.
Secondly, she competed in more meets, won more titles and medals, and set more historical records than McLaughlin-Levrone, whose only competitions were within the United States and who didn’t race again after the World Championships.
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If the Nigerian matched or surpassed all McLaughlin-Levrone’s achievements this year, then what was the main criteria used by the World Athletics council in voting for the winner?
Results or medals won? The American won just two Gold medals while Amusan won a whopping five Gold medals at three different championships. Is it the magnitude of the World Record broken? Let’s not talk about the impact Amusan’s performance has had on millions of Nigerians and how this has changed the image of the sport in the country. Or maybe the council are just looking for a more marketable face as the face of the sport, a brief that Amusan may not necessarily fill?
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Take nothing away from McLaughlin-Levrone: what she achieved this season was insane. The fact that she almost broke the World Record in all her races and is the first athlete in history to go sub-52s and significantly sub-51s is remarkable.
However, the truth is that nearly doesn’t kill a bird, so she broke the WR just twice - and the list of nominees also did the same or more; a significant mention at this juncture for Yulimar Rojas in the women’s Triple Jump.
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Perhaps one could argue that Amusan and other nominees were just unlucky to have their accomplishments in a season where there were so many record-breakers, as in any other year winning the prestigious award would have been a stroll in the park.
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09:45 - 02.02.2023
OPINION Ruth Usoro rising through the ranks as one of Africa's best jumpers in history
Ruth Usoro is just getting to the peak of her career, so still has a lot to offer and be in the game for many years. She may not be there yet, but she's steadily rising through the ranks of being one of Africa's best jumpers in history.
The reality is that the list of nominees was a great one with too many champions that deserved the recognition. Nevertheless, it wasn’t clear what the major criteria used in choosing the eventual Female Athlete of the Year was, hence the reactions and why some feel there may have been foul play.
- The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Pulse Sports
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