Paris Olympics: Amusan fails to reach 100mH final as 4x400m team gets disqualified

Tobi Amusan has failed to progress into the final of the women’s 100 meters hurdles. 

The 27-year-old clocked 12.55 seconds to finish third in the first heat of the event’s semi-final on Friday.

She was placed outside the two automatic qualification spots and later edged to the non-automatic slots by athletes in other heats.

Amusan had a poor start off the block in lane six of her heat. She was a couple of meters behind her opponents by the first few hurdles.

She attempted a recovery in the latter stage of the race but had fallen too far behind and could only dip for an agonising third-place finish.

The world record holder was still in a non-automatic qualification spot and hoped the two remaining heats would produce other athletes to contend for her slot.

The upset came in the third and final heat. Jaimaca’s Ackera Nugent and Samba-Mayela Cyrena of France finished fourth and fifth in the heat with times of 12.44 seconds and 12.52 seconds each.

In another disappointing Team Nigeria athletics outing, the men’s 4x400m team was disqualified after a team member stepped on the track line during the semi-final race.

The team had initially booked a place in the final after finishing second in the second heat of the semis, but Nigeria was sent out after a review of the race.