On the final day of the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, Nigeria’s Ese Brume leapt into the history books to become the first African (male or female) to claim two Long Jump medals at the World Championships after winning Silver with a Season’s Best (SB) of 7.02m in the final of her event.
While competing in Doha in 2019, Brume took the Bronze medal, making her the second Nigerian and African woman after Blessing to make the podium in the Long Jump. This time around in Oregon, she started out with a jump of 6.61m and then improved on her mark to 6.88m, before launching out to an impressive Season’s Best (SB) of 7.02m which put her in the lead.
However, Germany’s Malaika Mihambo who is the defending champion, responded with a superior leap of 7.09m which was good enough for GOLD, with Brume taking the Silver and Brazilian Leticia Oro Melo the Bronze with 6.89m.
The Silver from Oregon is the African Record holder’s fourth global medal since 2019, underlining her consistency as No.1 on the continent. Brume claimed a Bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year and Silver at her first ever outing at the World Indoor Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia back in March.
She is now one of three Nigerians to win two World Championships medals. First on the list is Francis Obikwelu who won a Silver in the men’s 4x100m in 1997 and then Bronze in the 200m in 1999. Okagbare clinched Silver and Bronze medals in the Long Jump and 200m respectively at Moscow 2013, while Brume won Bronze and Silver respectively in 2019 and 2022. She is also the only athlete (male or female) to win three back-to-back Long Jump titles at the African Championships.
She was joined in the Long Jump by teammate Ruth Usoro who was making her World Championships debut and placed 11th with a best jump of 6.52m. Usoro had also competed in the heats of the women’s Triple Jump, making her the first Nigerian athlete (male or female) to compete in both the Long Jump and Triple Jump at the World Championships.
