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.
The 25 year old Brume leapt a huge 6.85m personal season’s best in the third round of Long Jump event to move to the silver medal position behind pre-championships favourite, home girl Ivana Vuleta who took early command of the event with a 6.89m best in the second round before improving top 7.06m in the fourth round.
By that feat, Brume has not only become the third Nigerian to win medals at World Athletics Indoor Championships and out as well as at the Olympics 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).
Brume began her quest for a podium finish with a 6.22m effort. She improved to 6.47m in the second round before her huge leap in the third that eventually landed her on the podium.
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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).
Meanwhile, Ruth Usoro set a new personal season’s best of 6.69m to place eighth in the final classification, a huge lift for the 24 year old who has had an indifferent collegiate indoor season.
The Nigerian 4x400m relay team failed to make it to the final after running a personal season’s best time of 3:09.55.
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.
