Retired American sprinter Michael Johnson has maintained silence on Tobi Amusan’s Commonwealth Games record hours after her feat.
Amusan won gold in the 100m women’s hurdles on Sunday, August 7 at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, setting a new record with her 12:30 seconds race time.
Nigerians immediately took to Twitter, stating that they could not wait to hear what Johnson had to say about it following his criticism of the race times in the final of the 100m women’s hurdles at the World Athletics Championships concluded a fortnight ago.
Amid the backlash, Johnson posted a picture of himself on Twitter relaxing at an undisclosed spot. He also restricted comments on the post.
At the World Championships, Amusan won the race in 12:06 seconds helped by a tailwind of 2.5 metres per second.
Johnson, who won four Olympic gold and eight World Championships gold in a stellar track career, said he did not believe the race times were correct.
“I don’t believe 100h times are correct. World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set. And Cindy Sember quote after her PB/NR ‘I throughly I was running slow!’ All athletes looked shocked,” the 54-year-old tweeted.
“Heat 2 we were first shown winning time of 12.53. Few seconds later it shows 12.43. Rounding down by .01 is normal. .10 is not,” Johnson added.
After coming under attack on social media, Johnson tweeted, “As a commentator my job is to comment. In questioning the times of 28 athletes (not 1 athlete) by wondering if the timing system malfunctioned, I was attacked, accused of racism, and of questioning the talent of an athlete I respect and predicted to win. Unacceptable. I move on.”
Amusan’s father Kehinde told PUNCH back in July that he was not offended by Johnson’s comments.
“I feel unconcerned about what he said after the race because God has done what He needs to do. I don’t mind whatever anybody says about the timing, I feel that is how the western world is but they are not God,” he said.
