March 22, (THEWILL) – Nigerian athlete Ese Brume improved on her bronze medal performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by winning silver at the recently concluded World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
Brume’s third leap of 6.85m earned her the silver behind Serbia’s Ivana Vuleta, who won gold with a 7.06m leap.
Lorraine Ugen of the United Kingdom won bronze with a leap of 6.78m, ahead of Tiffany Flynn of the United States, who also produced a best leap of 6.78m.
As THEWILL reported, Brume was one of just two Nigerians to win a medal in the Olympic Games, and she followed that achievement by becoming the country’s first medalist at the Indoor Championships since 2008.
It was also a milestone accomplishment for Brume as it made her one of a select group of Nigerian competitors to have won medals at both the indoor and outdoor World Athletic Championships, as well as an Olympic gold.
The late Sunday Bada and 110m hurdler Glory Alozie are the other two athletes in this elite group. Brume has made it her mission to assist Nigeria end its drought in international games and is seeing it come to pass.
The country had gone six years without a medal at the World Athletics Championships before winning bronze in the Long Jump event in 2019. It was also 13 years without an Olympic medal in athletics for Nigeria until last year’s Games.
Brume did not stop at ending all that medal dry spell for her homeland but there was the World Athletics Indoor Championships this year, where she broke a 14-year drought.
The silver in Belgrade was a fantastic achievement, especially considering it was Brume’s first major competition in 2022. Ruth Usoro, Brume’s compatriot, came in eighth place with a season-best leap of 6.69m. With four gold, three silver, and two bronze medals, Ethiopia took first place.
With three gold, seven silver, and nine bronze medals, the United States came in second, while Belgium came in third with two gold medals.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
