Nigeria’s top field athlete of the moment, Ese Brume had to settle for a bronze medal in the women’s long jump at the ongoing Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, though her leap of 6.97m could have easily fetched her silver, megasportsarena.com reports.
However, on a day all varying odds appeared to favour two of her rivals, Brume equaled the leap that was first achieved by USA’s Brittany Reece, while gold went to Malaika Mihambo of Germany, which pushed the Nigerian hope and former Commonwealth Games winner into third place.
Nonetheless, it was a spirited push by Brume, who happens to be a three-time African senior champion and holds a personal best of 7.17m, as well as African junior record holder and five-time African junior champion, all in the women’s long jump.
Brume was 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 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics and 2016 Olympic Games, where she placed fifth in the final with a leap of 6.81m, then placed third in the final of the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Qatar.
She has now won Nigeria’s first athletics medal at the Olympics since 2008 in Beijing, China, where Blessing Okagbare won bronze in the same event, while also making that event the first individual category that has given the country three Games medals.
It stated with Chioma Ajunwa’s gold at Atlanta ‘96 Olympics topping Okagbare’s bronze at Beijing 2008, as Brume also joins the latter and Glory Alozie as the only Nigerian athletes to win individual medals at both the World Championships and Olympics.
Brume’s date in history came on Tuesday, August 3, 2021 at Tokyo Olympic Stadium, where she and Reese swapped top spot a number of times, as they jostled between gold and silver, until Mihambo, with her very last jump, leapt 7.00m to add the Olympic gold to the world title she won two years ago in Doha, Qatar.
The 25-year-old Brume ended up third after six jumps, despite initially taking the lead after the first round with a 6.97m jump in her first attempt.
At that point, Brume ranked ahead of Mihambo (6.95m), the energetic Tara Davis of the United States who jumped 6.62m as well as Jazmin Sawyers of Great Britain who got a red flag in her first attempt.
The Nigerian lass, though, dropped to the silver medal spot after the third round with a no jump, while she was overtaken by Reese who jumped a distance of 6.97m in her third attempt while Davis, one of the stars of the event, jumped 6.81 to move out of the eighth position into seventh.
However, the Nigerian heroine, who entered the competition as the longest jumper in the world but failed to enact same feat on the day, got a red flag in her fifth attempt.
On the other hand, Mihambo started well, taking the lead on her first attempt with a jump of 6.83m, but she was initially overtaken by Brume with a leading jump of 6.97m which set the standard in the first of six attempts.
Onto the second attempts and Mihambo moved within 2cm of Brume’s 6.97m and Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic in third (6.91m), while Reese took top spot on the third attempt, in front of Brume’s jump of 6.97m by virtue of having the second longest effort, but the Nigerian’s second best jump of 6.88 on her fourth attempt put her back into the overall lead.
Reese’s fourth attempt of 6.87m meant she trailed Brume by a single centimetre, but the 34-year-old continued to show her great consistency as she moved into the lead on her fifth attempt with a 6.95m jump.
Into the final round, with the chase now reduced to only three head-to-head jumpers for the gold medal and, on Mihambo’s last jump, she leapt 7.00m to move from bronze to gold position, while Brume could only finish in bronze with her final jump of 6.90m, but Reese recorded 6.84m to take silver.
Brume will now take consolation in the words of sports minister, Sunday Dare, who congratulated her for her efforts and charged other Nigerian athletes to emulate her, adding: “Ese Brume. Congrats and thanks for the Bronze medal. Still a champion.
“Also, Tobi Amusan thanks for competing with the best. Still a champion. The future is bright. Thank you for making Nigeria proud!”
