Tobi Amusan did not only win the gold medal and broke the world record in 100-metre hurdle at the just concluded 2022 World Athletics Championship in Oregon, USA, she also finished among the top money earners at the biennial competition.
The 25-year-old did 12.12 seconds in the semi-final, breaking American Kendra Harrison’s 2016 record of 12.20 seconds.
Amusan went on to bag gold in the final, but her finishing time of 12.06 was ruled out for strong wind speeds.
It was the first time Nigeria would win gold at the World Championships and her feat sent shockwaves around the world.
The gold medal and world record meant Amusan finished as joint second highest earner at the championships.
She tied with Sweden’s Armand Duplantis who broke his own pole vault world record with a jump of 6.21 metres on the way to winning his first gold medal at the World Championships.
The prize for individual gold medal at the competition was $70,000. Japanese electronics company TDK gave an additional $100,000 to gold medal winners who broke an IAAF World Record.
Amusan and Duplantis, therefore, earned $170,000 each.
With Nigeria’s naira exchanging between 700 and 710 to a dollar at the parallel market, Amusan’s winning comes to about ₦120million when converted.
The official rate of ₦430 to a dollar will give her about ₦73million.
By comparison, Duplantis will get about 1.7million Swedish Krona if his winning is converted from the dollar.
American hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin tops the earners’ table with $181,429 for winning the gold and setting a new world record in the 400-metre hurdle.
Apart from getting $170,000 for her gold medal and world record, McLaughlin got $11,429 as a member of the seven-woman team that got $80,000 dollars for winning the 4×400-metre relay gold.
