Nigeria’s Amusan Finishes Second At Lausanne Diamond League

Nigerian sprinter and world record holder, Tobi Amusan, finished in second position on Friday in the 100m hurdles event at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday, June 30, 2023.

Naija News understands that Amusan emerged second in the race with a time of 12.47s equaling her personal best for the season.

The race was won by Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn who ended the lap in 12.40s while the third position went to Tia Jones, who ran a time of 12.51s.

Amusan is noted to have recorded a slight improvement from her performance earlier on Tuesday, where she finished in third position behind Camacho-Quinn and Tia, respectively, at the continental tour event in Ostra.

Naija News understands that the trio will battle again in Stockholm on Sunday.

Amusan hopes to hit top form before defending her title at the World Athletics Championship later this year in Budapest.

Rena Wakama Becomes D’Tigress’ New Head Coach

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), has appointed Rena Wakama as the head coach of D’Tigress, Nigeria’s women’s basketball national team.

The NBBF, who made this announcement via a tweet on Friday, June 30, confirmed that the retired basketball player would head the national team for two years.

D’Tigress, five-time Afrobasket champions, have been without a head coach since Otis Hughley left the role in 2022.

Rena Wakama who is a former national team player and is currently an assistant coach at Stony Brook University is from Rivers State.

She earned honours at Western Carolina University and played basketball professionally in the United Kingdom before she went into coaching.

Rena Wakama graduated from Western Carolina with a bachelor’s in therapeutic recreation in 2014, and Manhattan with an MBA in 2019.

After working there for two years as the Director of Women’s Basketball Operations, Wakama is now in her fourth season as an assistant coach at Manhattan College.

Wakama serves as the team’s academic and volunteer liaison in addition to managing the development of the wing/guard position players in her role as an assistant coach.

Under her leadership, the Jaspers achieved a team GPA of 3.61, a program best, and placed fifth nationally in Division I women’s basketball for community service hours.