American retired sprinter Michael Johnson has come under criticism on social media for questioning the times recorded for the women’s 100m hurdles at the World Athletics Championship.
Amusan clocked an incredible 12.06 seconds, smashing her world record in the semi-final where she clocked 12.12 seconds.
Johnson said after the race that he does not believe the time was 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,” he tweeted.
Johnson added, “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.”
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 winning time will not be recognised as a world record due to an illegal tailwind of 2.5 metres per second.
Despite Johnson’s correctness, Nigerians have taken to Twitter to accuse him of partiality in his commentary.
