8. Ese Brume
Occupying the 8th spot on our Top 10 list of African Female Athletes is Nigeria’s Ese Brume who is the African Record holder in the women’s Long Jump. 2022 was arguably Brume’s busiest season yet but she rose to the occasion to do Nigeria and Africa proud at the meetings she participated in.
Brume has won a global medal at every major championship she’s competed in since the World Championships at Doha 2019 where she won Bronze, Nigeria’s first World Championships medal since 2013 when Blessing Okagbare won medals in the Long Jump and 200m.
Brume leapt to a Silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year and then for the first time in her career, competed at the World Indoor Championships held in Serbia in March 2022. Even though it was quite rare to open her season that early, the three-time African Championships GOLD medallist did justice to her event by winning Silver with a Season’s Best (SB) of 6.85m, making her just one of three Nigerian athletes to have won medals at the Olympics, World Indoors and World (outdoor) championships.
She featured in a number of competitions within and outside the US and then competed at the Prefontaine Classic where she jumped to 2nd place with a mark of 6.82m, following it with an impressive performance at the Citius Meeting in Bern where she leapt to an SB of 6.92m to dominate the competition. She returned to Nigeria for the National Championships where she claimed her 5th title in 6.89m and thereafter returned to Europe for a few meets before the World Championships.
At the World Championships Long Jump final in Oregon, Brume was leading the standings with an SB of 7.02m until familiar foe Malaika Mihambo found her groove to win the GOLD medal with 7.09m as the Nigerian settled for Silver, an upgrade from her Bronze from Doha.
She switched her focus to the Commonwealth Games, making a return to the Games after her Glasgow triumph in 2014 which propelled her to greater heights. This time around in Birmingham, not only did Brume reclaim her GOLD medal; she also set a new Games Record of 7.00m while at it.
She went on to secure her first ever Diamond League victory with a distance of 6.83m and closed her season at ISTAF, Berlin, where she placed 2nd. It goes without saying that the 2019 African Games Champion has set her sights on occupying the No.1 spot in the world next year.
