Nigeria’s Ese Brume has returned Nigeria to the World Indoor championships podium for the first time since Olusoji Fasuba raced to 60m gold in Valencia in 2008.
With her third jump in the women’s long jump event at the Belgrade 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships, Brume secured the country’s sole medal with silver medal effort the global tournament which ended yesterday in Serbia.
Brume started her jump with 5.22m in her first jump while she improved it to 6.47m in the second jump. But it was her third jump that pushed her to the second spot in the leader’s ladder with 6.85m behind the gold medalist Serbia’s Ivana Vuleta whose 7-06m became the world-leading record this season.
Brume’s 6.85m became her season’s best while Great Britain’s Lorraine Ugen made it to the podium with a bronze medal after her 6.82m took her to the podium.
By the feat in Belgrade, Brume became the third Nigerian to win medals at World Indoors and the Olympic Games behind Glory Alozie and late Sunday Bada but also the third long jumper to win a World Indoor title after Paul Emordi (1987) and Chioma Ajunwa (1997).
The feat moved her to the top of the African and Nigerian indoor list for the year, joint fourth in the African all-time list behind Chioma Ajunwa (6.97m), Blessing Okagbare (6.87m) and Sierra Leone’s Eunice Barber (6.86m).
Nigeria was represented by six athletes who competed in the Men’s 4X400m and long jump competed on the third day which was the final day of the championships as the Men’s relay team anchored Ifeanyi Ojeli missed out from qualifying to the final after finishing fourth with a time of 3.09.55 in a race which also include Sikiru Adeyemi, Timothy Emeoghene and Samson Nathaniel. The heat was won by Belgium.
Two Nigerians competed in the women’s long jump with Brume and Ruth Usoro joining 13 others for the final.
Despite finishing eighth, Usoro set a new personal season’s best of 6.69m in the final which was a huge lift for the 24-year-old debutant.
With Brume’s silver medal win, Nigeria has now won 12 medals in the history of the Championships with two gold medals, seven silver, and three bronze medals.