Before Tobi Amusan, There Was A Certain Gloria Alozie

Olayinka Olawole.

Before Tobiloba Amusan, there was a certain Gloria Alozie, who almost won Gold 🥇 for Nigeria in the 100m Hurdles at the 2000 Olympics hosted by Australia. 

Gloria Alozie in the colours of Spain..

Gloria Alozie Celebrates After Winning Silver Medal at the 100m H upurdles Event In The 2000 Olympics. 

As a kid, I watched with close attention and keen interest how Nigerian Athlete, Gloria Alozie worked her socks off to get to the finals of the 100m Hurdles, just few days after she lost her Fiance Hyginus Anugo, through an accident in Sydney.

Tobi Amusan became the first Nigerian to Win Gold at the World Championship. 

Anugo was to represent Nigeria at the Sydney games (4×400m) but failed to make the final list, and was planning to go back home, when the unfortunate incident happened and for that reason, alot of people thought Gloria wouldn't participate further, but she surprised us all, by going ahead to surpass alot of people's expectations at the games.

On the final day of the 100m hurdles, the Stadium Australia was filled to capacity, with anticipating crowd ready to experience a rare glory from Gloria Alozie. Brown Ebewele, Team Nigeria Atheletics Head Coach, was confident Alozie will pick Gold, so was many people watching from home. I was also optimistic, because she had the best timing going into the finals.

Gloria Alozie ran the race of her life, but was unlucky as she came close to winning a Gold For Nigeria. Kazakhstan Olga Shishigina went home with the Gold with a time of 12.65sec, while Alozie came second with a time of 12.68secs. It was a photo finish, a difference of 0.3seconds. 

After the race, I remember Gloria Alozie kneeling in thanks and praise to almighty God for crowning her effort and dedicated the medal to her late Fiance Hyginus Anugo who died few days before the race. 

A year after, the Sprinter dumped her country of birth to compete for Spain and won two Silver Medals at the World Championship and a Gold Medal at the 2002 European Championship.

Ese Brume also won Silver 🥈 medal in the World Championship. 

Amusan has enjoyed a meteoric rise in her career since 2015 when she emerged African Junior Champion in the 100m Hurdles, and then the All-African Games Gold medallist later that year. She secured a Track and Field scholarship to University of Texas El Paso at the end of the 2015 season, and has since enjoyed a new lease of life.

In 2016, she broke UTEP’s 33-year old record in the 100m Hurdles, running under 13secs for the first time in her life when she clocked 12.83secs, which qualified her for the Rio Olympics where she got to the semis. The time remains the Nigerian and African Junior Record! The time would have become the official World U20 Record but for the fact that there was no post-race drugs test.