Few athletes guarantee medals for their country just like Ese Brume, in fact she has won a medal at every major championship she has been at since she struck GOLD at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, now adding an Indoor Championships medal to her glittering collection.
Brume on Sunday (March 22nd) won Nigeria’s only medal at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, leaping to a new Personal Best of 6.85m to clinch the Silver medal in women’s Long Jump event, behind home favourite Ivana Vuleta who won GOLD with a World Leading (WL) jump of 7.06m.
For Brume who had not competed this year before travelling to Belgrade, she looked a bit rusty with her first attempt, recording an opening mark of 6.22m. However she grew into the competition, jumping 6.47m on her second attempt and then went out to a PB of 6.85m on her 3rd jump which earned her a spot in the final round.
Quite a competition going on in the women's Long Jump at the World Indoors in Belgrade where Nigeria's Ese Brume moved from 10th place into 2nd with her 3rd jump of 6.85m. It is her first competition this year and her compatriot Ruth Usoro is currently in 7th with an SB of 6.69m. pic.twitter.com/Ssb8ttcDjg
— Making of Champions (@MakingOfChamps) March 20, 2022
In the final round, she looked like the only real challenger to Vuleta for GOLD, although the Serbian was the only athlete of the field to scratch 7m. Great Britain’s Lorraine Ugen who had only two legal jumps in her six jumps series, did just enough to finish on the podium with 6.82m.
Nigeria had waited for 14 years to win a World indoor Championships medal since Olusoji Fasuba last won one in 2008, winning the 60m title in Valencia when he clocked a then WL of 6.51s to beat Great Britain’s Dwain Chambers and St Kitts and Nevis’ Kim Collins.
Interestingly, Brume has gotten accustomed to bailing Nigeria out when the country goes on an extended run without a medal. In 2019 she ended Nigeria’s six-year wait for a medal at the World Championships, clinching Bronze in Doha. At the Tokyo Olympics, she also ended Nigeria’s 13-year wait for an Athletics medal, winning Bronze with a leap of 6.97m.
Competing on the same field, Ruth Usoro got her first taste of a major championships, and she didn’t fare badly, making the final rounds of the jump and finishing in 8th place with a Season’s Best of 6.69m. It will be a remarkable experience for Usoro to glean something off the longevity of her much experienced compatriot, Brume who has been jumping for almost a decade.
With what Brume had shown in Belgrade, Nigeria will continue leaning on her expertise for global medals in Athletics, and she has proven countless times that she is a sure medal bet to bank on.
Brume has now gone into the pantheons of the greats, becoming the first Nigerian athlete in history to win medals across the Commonwealth Games: World Indoor and Outdoor championships, and the Olympic Games. She doesn’t look like she is stopping anytime soon.
