Former Commonwealth Games gold medalist, Ese Brume has gained words of praise from Nigeria’s sports minister, Sunday Dare, after she broke the women’s long jump record set by Chioma Ajunwa at Atlanta ’96 Olympics, megasportsarena.com reports.
Dare was gleeful at the weekend, after news emerged that Brume broke Ajunwa’s 25-year African women’s long jump record on Saturday, when the continent’s new record was also recorded as the world leader in the long jump women’s event ahead of the postponed 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
The talented athlete’s amazing feat came after series of attempts at the Chula Vista Field Festival in California, USA, where the athlete from Delta State jumped 7.17 meters to break Ajunwa’s record of 7.13m that was set in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Brume, who achieved the feat after her sixth attempt, having jumped 6.75m, 6.83m, 6.83m, 6.88m, and 6.83m respectively, last excited Nigerians at the Turkish championships in Bursa on August 5, 2019, when she broke the 7-meter barrier for the first time in her career and further surpassed the mark twice in the competition.
Back then, the three-time African senior champion in the long Jump leaped 7.05m and achieved the second-best African performance in history, after which she won the bronze medal in the World Championships in Doha with a jump of 6.91m two months later.
Born 20 January 20, 1996in Ughelli, Delta State, Brume first emerged at national level at the 2012 Nigerian Athletics Championships with former junior athletes Dakolo Emmanuel and Fabian Edoki.
She also was the winner at the 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos.[8] The following year she set a personal best of 6.53 m (21 ft 5 in) to place second nationally, behind Blessing Okagbare.
Before Saturday, she had a personal best of 7.05 m (23 ft 1+1⁄2 in) and she is the African junior record holder in the event as well as a five-time African junior champion.
Brume was the long jump gold medalist at the 2013 African Junior Athletics Championships, 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2014 African Senior Athletics Championships and 2015 African Junior Athletics Championships.
She also represented Nigeria at the World Junior Championships in Athletics in 2014 and at the 2016 Olympic Games where she placed 5th in the Long Jump final with a leap of6.81m.
Brume placed third in the Long Jump final of the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Qatar, before which she was one of the most successful athletes at the 2013 African Junior Athletics Championships.
She won the long jump title, took silver in the triple jump, and was part of Nigeria’s winning 4×100 meters relay team. She also placed fourth individually in the 100 meters.
Brume successfully defended her long jump title at the next edition of the African Junior Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa.
She added the triple jump and 4 x 100 m relay title, and a bronze medal in the individual 100 meters to her collection.
In May 2014 she ran a 100 m best of 11.84 seconds then followed this with a long jump best and new African junior record of 6.60 m (21 ft 7+3⁄4 in) to win at the Warri Relays.
She improved to 6.68 m (21 ft 10+3⁄4 in) at the Nigerian Championships to win her first national title and became the African Games champion in the Long Jump on 29 August 2019.
That was her first African games title. On 24 July 2019, in Erzurum, she improved her personal best to 6.96m despite a very strong headwind (−2.1m/s).
At the 2020 Turkish championships in Bursa on August 4, Brume broke the 7-meter barrier for the first time in her career – surpassing that mark twice in the competition.
Her jump of 7.05 m (+ 0.9m/s) ranks as the second best African performance in history, after which she won the bronze medal in the World Championships with a jump of 6.91m on October 6, 2020.
Her latest feat has now been celebrated by Dare and one of Nigeria’s lading track and field production units, Making of Champions, as they both took to social media to reveal various levels of excitement with Brume’s feat.
A post that came via @MakingOfChamps stated: “WAKE UP NIGERIA! ESE BRUME has just jumped a distance no African woman has ever reached before. Brume has just shattered Chioma Ajunwa’s 25-year Long Jump record, leaping an astonishing 7.17m (1.1) to win this event at the Chula Vista Festival. It’s also a WL…take a bow Ese!!”
Dare also stated in celebration: “Ese Brume all the way! Ese just shattered the National and African records in long jump at the SanDiego meet. Her jump buries Chioma Ajunwa’s record. Congratulations Ese!”
