Tobi Amusan, the former World 100m hurdles champion, and Ezekiel Nathaniel, a 400m hurdler, have officially earned their spots at the 2024 Olympic Games set to be held in Paris, France.
In December of the previous year, World Athletics unveiled the qualification criteria for the Paris 2024 athletics events, which included the performance standards that athletes would need to meet.
Amusan made history as the first Nigerian athlete to secure her place at the Games. Her remarkable achievement occurred during the BAUHAUS-Galan Diamond League event in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 2, where she blazed through the 100m hurdles in a stunning 12.52 seconds at the Olympiastadion.
The entry standard for the 100m hurdles was set at 12.77 seconds, and the 26-year-old athlete has since improved her time, recording a personal season’s best of 12.34 seconds at the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Diamond League event in Chorzów, Poland, on July 16.
As for Nathaniel, the 400m hurdles record holder for Nigeria with a time of 48.42 seconds, he secured his ticket to his first-ever Olympics by competing at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. The 20-year-old clocked an impressive time of 48.47 seconds, surpassing the entry standard of 48.70 seconds.
Meanwhile, long jumper Ese Brume came tantalizingly close to securing her spot for the Paris Olympics during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, where she fell short by just two centimeters with a jump of 6.84 meters, earning her a fourth-place finish in the final. However, she still has an opportunity to meet the required 6.86-meter mark to qualify for the global event.
Brume’s next chance will come at the Diamond League final in Oregon, USA, scheduled to take place between September 16-17. Notably, Brume has previously participated in two Olympic Games, finishing fifth in her debut at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Brazil, and achieving a remarkable third-place finish five years later at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan.
