Amusan Sets New Meet Record at New Taipei Open
Nigerian track star Tobi Amusan secured another commanding victory on Saturday by setting a new meet record in the women’s 100-metre hurdles at the New Taipei Athletics Open in Taiwan. The world record holder crossed the finish line in 12.72 seconds to claim the continental title at the Banqiao Stadium. Running against a slight headwind of -0.3 metres per second, the athlete finished comfortably ahead of the host nation’s favourite, Bo Ya Zhang, who took second place in 13.17 seconds. The dominant performance erases the previous tournament record and reinforces her position at the summit of global sprinting.
The triumph in East Asia maintains an exceptional run of international form for the 29-year-old hurdler. The victory occurs less than a week after Amusan secured her first Diamond League meeting win of the 2026 season in Rabat, Morocco. In that African outing, she clocked an impressive 12.28 seconds to equal her season’s best and dismantle her own previous tournament record. Her recent sequence of fast times shows that the reigning champion is building peak physical momentum at the right moment.
The tactical trip to Taiwan forms a vital part of her training schedule ahead of upcoming major global championships. While her winning time at the Banqiao Stadium was slightly slower than her seasonal peak, sports analysts value the outing for its technical consistency. Amusan started her current global campaign in China with a third-place finish in Shanghai before taking second place in Xiamen. In the latter Asian race, she pushed American hurdles star Masai Russell to the limit with another 12.28-second performance.
Managing the intense psychological pressure of being the fastest woman in history remains her main challenge. Amusan permanently altered the sport in 2022 by clocking an astonishing world record of 12.12 seconds during the World Athletics Championships in Oregon. Since that historic breakthrough, every subsequent race serves as a public test of her elite status. The athlete frequently credits her close coaching team for keeping her grounded amidst soaring national expectations. The latest victory in New Taipei proves that she can deliver gold medals even when facing difficult travel schedules and adverse weather conditions.
Nigeria’s athletic administrators are using her sustained excellence to inspire a younger generation of domestic track talent. Amusan previously captained the national contingent to the African Athletics Championships in Accra, Ghana, where she secured her third consecutive continental gold. Her presence on the European and Asian circuits has drawn significant corporate sponsorship to the domestic sports federation. With the Commonwealth Games approaching, national selectors are banking on her leadership to secure a large medal haul. For now, the world record holder returns to her training base to fine-tune her hurdle clearances for the final legs of the summer season.