American sprinting legend Michael Johnson has fired back at ‘dumbassery’ accusations of ‘black racism’ made against him after he questioned the legitimacy of the world records broken at this year’s World Athletics Championships. Outlining the women’s 100m hurdle event, 12 of the 24 runners across the semi-finals recorded their best ever times.
Most notably Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan broke a new world record, as she ran to victory in 12.12 seconds to beat Kendra Harrison's 2016 world record by 0.08 seconds. Noticing this remarkable trend, Johnson took to Twitter to question the timing in the stadium, adding that the athletes looked ‘shocked’.
He wrote: “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 thoroughly [thought] I was running slow!” All athletes looked shocked.”
