Tobi Amusan loses Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year to Tennis youngster Carlos Alcaraz

Once again, Nigeria won't have a winner at the world's most prestigious sports award as Tobi Amusan lost the Laureus Sports Award to Spanish Tennis youngster Carlos Alcaraz.

Amusan and Alcaraz were nominated in the Breakthrough of the Year category, alongside other sports personalities in Elena Rybakina (Tennis), Morocco's men's football team, Nathan Chen (Figure Skating), and Scottie Scheffler (Golf), all with an outstanding 2022 breakthrough year.

Alcaraz ended year 2022 as the No. 1 tennis player in the world after winning the US Open title and becoming the youngest ever men's World No. 1 tennis player at 19 years. He is also the first teenager in the Open Era to top the men's rankings.

He continued with the same record-breaking form this year, already winning four ATP titles this season - his most recent was successfully defending his Madrid Open title.

Meanwhile, Amusan became Nigeria's first World Record (WR) holder in any track and field event after racing to an exceptional 12.12s to win her 100m Hurdles semifinal race at the World Championships in Oregon.

Then she became Nigeria's first outdoor World Champion to win a World title in the final, clocking another massive time of 12.06s (2.6m/s). It would have been a new WR as well, but the excessive wind reading made it illegal.

Less than two weeks after Oregon, Amusan added Commonwealth and Diamond League titles, clocking record-breaking times of 12.30s (Games Record) and 12.29s (Meeting Record) to successfully defend both titles, making her the first Nigerian athlete in history to achieve such a feat.

Though Amusan won't be bringing back the Laureus Sports Award, she'll take solace in the fact she's the first Nigerian sportswoman to be nominated for the greatest sports award in the world after Vitalis Lanshima got nominated in the Sportsperson with a Disability category in 2004, which he lost to a Canadian.