Tobi Amusan’s incredible achievement and exceptional performance have brought credit not only to her, but also to Nigeria and the African continent.
The 25-year-old just won gold at the World Athletics Championship.
She defeated sprint champions such as world record holder Kendra Harrison, Jamaica’s Brittany Anderson, and Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn to become Africa’s first gold medalist in the Women’s 100m hurdles.
Tobi’s most recent achievement was a record-breaking gold medal for Nigeria in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
For Tobi, she owes her success to the guidance and trust of her coach – Lacena Golding-Clarke, who she described as her ‘second mummy’.
Tobi in a post on her Facebook page said: “Y’all should meet my lovely coach and second mum, Coach Lacena Golding Clarke.
“She recruited me while I was back in Nigeria to University of Texas, El Paso when I was running 14.2s and today is history for both of us.
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“She was also a world class hurdler during her active days; multiple finalist at the Olympics, World Championships and a Commonwealth Games Champion representing Jamaica.”
Who is Lacena Golding-Clarke?
Lacena Golding-Clarke was born in Clarendon, Jamaica on March 20, 1975. She is a retired Jamaican female hurdling athlete.
She represented Jamaica at the Summer Olympics in 1996, 2000, and 2004, and she competed in five World Athletics Championships.
Amusan has been working with her Jamaican coach since 2016.
Lacena assisted Amusan in focusing on intense training and lowering her personal best from 13:10 to 12:83. Those were the modest measures the new world champion had to take to reach his current position.
She began her career as a long jumper, and she competed in this event in the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000. Her personal best jump is 6.87 meters, which she achieved in Kingston in June 1998.
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games, she won a gold medal in the 100m hurdles. Her personal best time is 12.68 seconds, which she set in Kingston in June 2005. Her hurdles career also featured bronze medals at the 2003 Pan American Games and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
She retired from track and field in 2010 after reaching her sixth consecutive IAAF World Indoor Championships 60 m final.
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After receiving a BA in Political Science and Government from Auburn University in 1999, Golding-Clarke worked as a volunteer assistant coach at Auburn from March 1999 to August 2006, and then as a coach at the University of Texas in Austin from September 2006 to 2011.
Golding-Clarke was hired as an assistant coach at the University of Texas at El Paso in May 2012. (UTEP).
Golding-Clarke coached 13 All-Americans, 32 regional qualifiers, 32 C-USA individual title winners, and eight school record-breakers during his time at UTEP, including Tobi Amusan.
Sourced from The Nation Online, Wikipedia
