Brilliant Brume hits women long jump final

EUGENE, OREGON – JULY 23: Ese Brume of Team Nigeria competes in the Women’s Long Jump qualification on day nine of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 23, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by AFP)

Oregon 2022 World Athletics Championships’ silver medallist, Ese Brume, will attempt to win her second Commonwealth Games medal tomorrow evening, as the women’s long jump final holds in Birmingham.

Brume, who overcame ‘serious’ illnesses to grab the silver medal at Oregon, Eugene, United States, started her campaign on a brilliant note yesterday, after recording a 6.81m (+0.3) jump to gain automatic qualification in Group B.

In Group A, another Nigerian, Ruth Usoro, recorded 6.59m (+1.0), which was enough to earn her one of the non automatic qualification spot in the final.

In 2014, Brume made big headlines in Glasgow, Scotland, where she won the Commonwealth Games gold medal, her first major competition at the senior level.

But in 2018, she was denied the opportunity of defending her title at the Gold Coast, Australia, after the former board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), left her out of the list of 28 athletes for the Games.

Brume, who is tipped for the gold medal in tomorrow’s final event, said she has put behind the bad treatment from the then AFN board.

“No hard feelings about what AFN did to me in 2018,” she told The Guardian shortly before she left Oregon for the Commonwealth Games. “I have already left everything in the hands of God. We move onto the next level.”

Few athletes guarantee medals for their country just like Brume. Since she broke into limelight in 2013, Brume has won a medal at every major championship she attended. She became the first Nigerian to win an Olympics medal