Ese Brume Completes Circle of Worlds and Olympic Wins with Silver in Belgrade

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games long jump bronze medalist, Ese Brume, yesterday added World Indoor Championships silver medal to the bronze she won at the outdoor version in Doha, Qatar in 2019.

Like she did last year in Tokyo when she ended Nigeria’s 13 years wait for an Olympic track and field medal with the bronze, yesterday’s silver in Belgrade, Serbia ended the country’s search for a World Indoor Championships medal since 2008 when Olusoji Fasuba raced to the 60m gold in Valencia, Spain.

The 25-year-old Delta long jumper though failed to match her PB of 17.17m, the 6.85m she jumped in the third round was good enough to earn her the silver medal behind pre-season favorite for the gold, Ivana Vuleta. The Serbia home girl kicked off with 6.89m before accelerating to 7.06m in the fourth round.

Great Britain’s Lorraine Ugen settled for the consolatory  bronze.

Brume’s feat yesterday in Belgrade has made her the third Nigerian to win medals at both the World Athletics Championships indoor and outdoor as well as at the Olympics. Glory Alozie and the late Sunday Bada are the fore runners. She is also the third long jumper behind Paul Emordi (1987) and Chioma Ajunwa (1997) to win a World Indoor title.

As it has become her trademark, Brume began her quest for a podium finish slowly with a 6.22m effort. She then improved to 6.47m in the second round before her huge leap in the third that eventually landed her on the podium.

Further efforts to turn silver to gold were futile as she could only jump 6.66m, 6.76m and 6.67m in the fourth, fifth and final round.

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).

The other Team Nigeria girl in the event, Ruth Usoro set a new personal season’s best of 6.69m to place eighth in the final classification.

It was a huge lift for the 24-year-old who has had an indifferent collegiate indoor season.

Nigeria now have history of 12 medals in the Championships (two gold, seven silver and three bronze medals).