Athlos: Amusan ends 2026 season with second-place finish

Tobi Amusan pocketed $35,000 for finishing second in the women’s 100m hurdles at the Athlos meeting in London on Friday.

The Nigerian, who ended her season at the event, clocked 12.51 seconds (+1.2m/s) to finish just 0.01 seconds behind American Alaysha Johnson, who won in 12.50 seconds. It was Johnson’s 40th race of the season.

Amusan, a former world record holder, had been confirmed for the meeting in August and lined up against a strong field at StoneX Stadium in Barnet.

Commonwealth Games champion and world indoor record holder, Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, was third in 12.63 seconds, tied with Jamaica’s Danielle Williams, a former world champion, who took fourth.

Jamaica’s Megan Simmonds was fifth in 12.66 seconds, while Rayniah Jones of the United States was sixth in 12.83 seconds.

Johnson succeeds Masai Russell as the Athlos hurdles champion. Russell, the reigning world record holder and Olympic champion, was confirmed for the meeting but withdrew earlier this week, days after winning the Diamond League and the $150,000 World Ultimate Championship.

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The result brings the curtain down on a season in which Amusan continued to compete at the highest level despite losing her long-standing world record to Russell. The American ran 12.09 seconds at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich, taking three hundredths of a second off the 12.12 seconds Amusan set in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. The Nigerian had held the mark for four years.

Amusan also finished second to Russell at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, Hungary, clocking 12.34 seconds against the American’s 12.22 seconds to pocket $75,000. She reached that final after finishing second in her semi-final in 12.49 seconds.

Russell, who claimed the $150,000 top prize in Budapest, has now finished ahead of Amusan three times in a row this season, having also beaten her at the Diamond League Final in Brussels, where the Nigerian placed fourth.

Athlos is a professional, female-only track and field series first held at Icahn Stadium in New York City on September 26, 2024. It was created by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, husband of 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams, and has a prize purse of $2.1m. Athletes chase a top prize of $65,000 in each event and an Athlos crown designed by Tiffany & Co., and are also offered equity in the league.

“The cash compensates their participation and success, and the equity recognises what we’re building together. If we get this right, it should properly place these amazing athletes on the same level as they are every four years during the Olympics,” Ohanian told the BBC in May.

The series was due to expand to a two-day event in 2026, but the New York meeting scheduled for October 2 has been cancelled.