Ese Brume made history Sunday night as the second Nigerian woman to win a long jump medal at the IAAF flagship event, the World Championships in Athletics, Completesports.com reports.
The 23 year old leapt a distance of 6.91m, her second longest career jump to win the bronze medal behind pre-championships favourite, Germany’s Malaika Mihambo (7.30m) and USA’s Kenyattia Hackworth (6.92m).
Brume opened with a 6.83m leap and was in the gold medal position after two round of jumps with Mihambo, who looked to be
exiting the competition after a 6.52m jump in two rounds producing a moment of brilliance with her incredible 7.30m leap in
the third round. The mark not only made her the unassailable leader, it also puts her as the 10th best jumper of all time.
Brume suffered a further setback in the fifth round as she slipped from second to third after Hackworth soared a centimetre better than the Nigerian to trade position by moving from a bronze medal position to silver with her 6.92m effort.
The Nigerian who made the final of the event at the Olympics three years ago on her debut has now moved from 10th in 2017 in London where she jumped a mediocre 6.38m to third two years later.
She is now the second Nigerian to make the podium in the event after Blessing Okagbare leapt a distance of 6.99m to win a silver medal behind USA’s Brittney Reese (7.01m) and also the third after Okagbare and Chioma Ajunwa to make the final of the event.
Unlike Brume,Tobi Amusan failed to fulfil expectations as she came short at the final hurdle to become the second Nigerian woman to win a 100m hurdles medal at the championships.
The petite Nigerian who set a new 12.48 seconds personal best in the first round and repeated the same time in the semi-final was one of the favourites for the three medals on offer on account of her incredible performances but a slow movement out of the blocks meant the reigning Commonwealth Games queen had a lot of catch-ups to do.
She was however unable to catch three athletes – Nia Ali, the twice World Indoor champion over the 60m hurdles who placed last
two years ago in London but emerged the surprise winner in Doha; Kendra Harrisson, the reigning world record holder at 12.20 seconds and Jamaica’s Danielle Williams, the world leader this year at 12.32 seconds.
Ali’s 12.34 seconds winning run not only prevented Amusan from making it to the podium, it also dropped the Nigerian from fourth to fifth in the 2019 top list and from 36th to 37th in the all-time top list.
By Dare Esan
