Nigeria’s world record holder Tobi Amusan has arrived in Accra, Ghana, with her sights firmly set on a third African senior 100 metres hurdles title as the 24th edition of the African Senior Athletics Championships gets underway at the University.

It is holding in Ghana Stadium in Legon, with competition running from May 12 to 17.

The 28-year-old from Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, carries an outstanding record at the continental championships into this week’s competition. She claimed her first African senior 100m hurdles gold at Asaba in 2018, backed it up with the title at Mauritius in 2022, and was widely expected to complete back-to-back defences at Douala 2024 before opting out of the individual event for personal reasons, instead contributing to Nigeria’s gold medal-winning 4x100m relay team at that edition.

A third individual title in Accra would therefore carry special significance, completing unfinished business and cementing her status as the most decorated hurdler in the history of the championships.

Amusan heads to Accra as the undisputed standard-bearer of the event, still in possession of the world record of 12.12 seconds she set in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon — the fastest time any woman has ever run over the sprint hurdles. She is also the reigning Commonwealth champion in the discipline and a three-time African Games winner, having completed a hat-trick of African Games 100m hurdles titles in Accra in 2024.

Her pedigree at the continental level is unmatched, and she enters the University of Ghana stadium as the overwhelming favourite.

The path to gold, however, will not be straightforward. The reigning African senior 100m hurdles champion is Liberia’s Ebony Morrison, who took the title in Douala with a championship record of 12.7 seconds, ahead of South Africa’s Marione Fourie and Madagascar’s Sidonie Fiadanantsoa. Morrison’s presence ensures the final will be a proper contest, even if the weight of expectation, reputation and raw speed points firmly in Amusan’s direction.

Amusan leads a formidable 45-athlete Nigerian contingent to the championships, a squad assembled by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria with an eye on both continental success and preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow later this year. Sprint stars Rosemary Chukwuma and Favour Ashe represent Nigeria’s hopes in the women’s and men’s 100m respectively, while three-time African shot put champion Chukwuebuka Enekwechi brings additional medal pedigree to the Green and White’s campaign. Nigeria’s squad mixes proven international talent with promising younger athletes who made an impression at the recent World Relays in Gaborone.

Ghana hosts the championships for the first time in over four decades, with more than one thousand athletes from up to 54 nations expected to compete across the six days of action.

Other headline acts at the meet include Kenya’s Julius Yego, chasing a record-setting sixth African javelin title, and the Ghanaian men’s 4x100m relay team, which will be roared on by a home crowd featuring two-time Olympian Joseph Amoah.

For Amusan, the focus beyond Accra sharpens quickly. Just three days after the championships conclude, she is scheduled to open her 2026 Diamond League campaign in Shanghai, where she will line up in a star-studded women’s 100m hurdles field alongside reigning world champion Ditaji Kambundji, Olympic champion Masai Russell, and Jamaican world champion Danielle Williams. Accra, then, is not merely about the continental title it is the launchpad for what could be another defining season in the career of Nigeria’s greatest track and field athlete.