Izuchukwu OkosiWorld and Commonwealth champion Tobi Amusan is gearing up for Thursday’s Diamond League tournament after she came third late Tuesday night in the 2023 Golden Spikes Meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
The world record holder in the women’s 100 metres hurdles is one of few Africans expected to gun for medals rush in Ostrava as preparations for the 2024 Olympics Games in Paris beckon for Team Nigeria.
The Nigerian blazed to her best time this season with 12.47s to finish third behind Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who ran 12.42s (0.0), and US sensation Tia Jones in 12.44s.
The Nigerian’s performance is a vital improvement from her previous best time of 12.57s to win the Racers Grand Prix two weeks ago, which shows she’s gradually getting back to her best and will be ready to defend her world title in Budapest.
Amusan will compete on Thursday with the other athletes like Camacho-Quinn, Alaysha Johnson and Jasmine Jones
The Member of the Order of Niger (MON) has been in frightening form since the 2022 Commonwealth Games and culminated in two world titles at the World Athletics Championship albeit one of the feats was nullified for being wind-assisted.
The 14th edition of the Diamond League began on May 5 in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
The campaign saw athletes heading north of Italy to Florence, Shenzhen hosting the one-day series for the first time ever, before returning to London which hasn’t hosted the series since 2019.
After the stop at the iconic London stadium that hosted the 2012 Olympic Games, the world’s best track and field athletes will head to Budapest this weekend for the 2023 World Athletics Championships before the battle for the Diamond Trophy resumes in Zurich at the end of August.
Brussels will be the last of the 13 one-day events where athletics stars can earn points that earns them qualification for the two-day Diamond League Finals.
This year’s Wanda Diamond League Final will be at the Hayward Field in Eugene in September, the first time it will be staged on US soil.
The Final has always been held in Europe previously. The Diamond League final will feature all of the disciplines for both men and women.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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