The Ughelli-born Brume had his bronze in her first attempt.
She never outjumped the same level, in other five attempts,
although she holds a personal best of 7.17m
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.
The 25 year old 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 countback
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.
The U.S. NCAA Champion and record holder Tara Davis were
tipped as one to watch before the final and she got off to a solid start,
registering 6.62m to put her in fourth.
Onto the second attempt and the medal contenders bunched up
at the top with Mihambo moving to within 2cm of Brume’s 6.97m and Serbia’s
Ivana Spanovic in third (6.91m).
Reese took the top spot on the third attempt, in front of
Brume’s jump of 6.97m by virtue of having the second-longest effort, but
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 centimeter, 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.
Mihambo, who is the current World and European champion,
indeed produced the A-level jump and her season’s best (SB) when it mattered
the most.
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.
Brittney Reese, who won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics
and a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics and placed fifth at the 2008 Olympics
scored 6.84m to take silver.
The highly-rated Davis came sixth with her best jump of
6.84m.
Great Britain’s Jazmin Sawyers made the cut to complete six
jumps, but came eighth with her longest jump of 6.80m, while Abigail Irozuru
also of Great Britain finished down in 11th (6.51m) amongst 12 other athletes
who competed in the event.
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