Tobi Amusan tastes defeat to US College Champion Grace Stark in pre-Paris Olympics race in Florida

Funmilayo Fameso 07:56 - 20 July 2024

Tobi Amusan a Nigerian Sprinter in action || Credit: Imago

Paris-medal hopeful Tobi Amusan lost in a stacked pre-Olympic race to US College Champion Grace Stark at the Mike Holloway Pro Classic in Florida.

Nigeria's Paris 2024 Olympics medal hopeful Tobi Amusan, tasted a surprising defeat at the Mike Holloway Pro Classic in Florida, as reigning US College champion Grace Stark swept away to victory in convincing style.

The World Record (WR) holder in the women's 100mH succumbed to second-place position in 12.60s (-1.7m/s) behind Stark's impressive winning time of 12.58s, thus making a bold claim of her preparedness for Paris.

Grace Stark at the line!

She takes the win in a LOADED women's 100m hurdles field to close out the Holloway Pro Classic in 12.58 (-1.7).

Presented by: @PUMA pic.twitter.com/4BvfoRNiPZ
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) July 20, 2024

As the NCAA Champion, Stark has been in brilliant form this season, with the highlight of her year coming at the US Olympic trials, where she blazed to a blistering Personal Best (PB) of 12.31s to finish second behind Masai Russel's exceptional world-leading time of 12.25s.

Grace Stark defeated Tobi Amusan in Florida

With a follow-up performance of defeating the former world champion in convincing style, she'll be brimming with confidence ahead of her Olympic debut. In addition, her consistency shows she's a medal contender for the big occasion in Paris.

Athletics

Ackera Nugent and Masai Russell now favourites to challenge Tobi Amusan in Paris after posting world-leading times

However, despite the loss for Amusan, the hurdling queen cannot be written off yet to still make a statement at the Games, as she clocked an impressive 12.49s to win her heat race - second-fastest time this season behind her 12.40s in Jamaica.

This proves the 27-year-old is still in form and with about two weeks before the start of the women's 100mH in Paris, there's time to fine-tune her preparations for a perfect peak to challenge for a medal, which she has always done in previous major championships.

Tobi Amusan after becoming the fastest woman in history at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon

Amusan will be heading to Paris in a bid to become Nigeria's first athlete in history to win a world outdoor and Olympic title, or at the least medal, matching the feat of Glory Alozie at Sydney 2000, who claimed a silver medal.

Meanwhile, US champion and world leader Russell also tipped as a big medal contender in Paris, finished third in the race in 12.66s and lost for the second time on the night to Amusan.