Nigeria’s reigning African record holder, Ese Brume, on Tuesday expressed delight at winning the first medal for the country at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Brume on Tuesday won the very first medal for Team Nigeria in the women’s long jump event at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Brume placed third after she surrendered silver on count back to Britney Reese of the U.S. as both leaped to 6.97m, while Malaika Mihambo of Germany got gold with her last jump with a leap of 7.00m.
A visibly excited Brume, who was in tears of joy while holding the Nigerian flag said: “Thank you Jesus and thank you all for your prayers. Thank you, thank you so much.”
Brume breezed through the qualification round on Sunday as her leap of 6.76 m automatically qualified her for Tuesday’s final.
After an exciting competition during which the lead changed hands frequently between Reese and Brume, Mihambo, who was placed third going into the final round, settled the deal with her last leap.
Reigning world champion Mihambo started well as she encouraged the crowd to make some noise before taking the lead on her first attempt with a jump of 6.83m.
But she was instantly overtaken by Nigeria’s in-form jumper Brume with a leading score of 6.97m which set the standard in the first of six attempts.
Reese took top spot on the third attempt, in front of Brume’s jump of 6.97m by virtue of having the second longest effort, but the Brume’s second best jump of 6.88 on her fourth attempt put her back into the overall lead, Reese’s fourth attempt of 6.87m meant she trailed Brume by a single centimetre, but the 34-year-old continued to show her great consistency as she moved into the lead on her fifth attempt with a 6.95m jump.
Into the final round and it was a battle between Mihambo, Reese and Brume for the gold medal.
On Mihambo’s last jump, she scored 7.00m to move from bronze into gold position.
She overtook Reese on her sixth and final attempt with a jump of 22 feet, 11¾ inches which was enough to win the gold medal as she won the competition by 3cm to become the reigning Olympic champion.
The 2014 Commonwealth and current African champion, Brume finished knowing she would settle for the bronze position with her final jump score of 6.90m.
