The hope of Team Nigeria winning her first medal on Sunday at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Budapest has been dashed.
Ese Brume, who was competing in the final of the Women’s Long Jump event, was widely tipped to deliver a medal going by her antecedence in every major competition she has represented Nigeria
However, despite a season-best jump of 6.84m, the African record holder finished just outside the medal zone in fourth position.
Brume, a bronze medalist at the Doha 2019 World Championships and a Silver medal winner in Oregon last year, was looking good to claim the bronze and become the first Nigerian to win three consecutive medals at the World Championships.
She was, however, denied that historic moment by Alina Rotaru-Kottmann (Romania), who saved her best for last with a leap of 6.88m which pushed her into the medal zone at the expense of Brume.
More heartbreaks
Sunday’s heartbreak was not all about Brume, as most of the Team Nigeria athletes in action all faltered in their respective events.
Sunday, Seye Ogunlewe (10.12) and Usheoritse Itsekiri (10.19) both crashed out in the semi-final of the men’s 100m.
The last time a Nigerian ran in the 100m final was 16 years ago when Olusoji Fasuba ran 10.04 seconds to finish fourth in Osaka, Japan.
While Nigeria was missing in the final, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo became the first African man in history to win a World Championships medal in the 100m as he finished second behind America’s Noah Lyles.
In the Women’s Discus throw, Nigeria entered three representatives who all failed to make it to the final as they could not throw the qualifying mark of 64.00 or be among the 12 best performers.
The best of the trio was: Chioma Onyekwere 58.58, Ashley Anumba 57.77, and Obiageri Pamela Amaechi 51.60.
On the track, the story was not any different in the men’s and women’s 400 m, where two athletes in action both failed to qualify for the next round.
Imaobong Nse Uko’s 52.24 was not good enough to qualify her for the next round in the women’s 400m, while Dubem Nwachukwu’s 45.60 in the men’s 400m also fell short of the required time.
Something to cheer
After the catalogue of failures, Ezekiel Nathaniel gave Team Nigeria something to cheer about in the men’s 400m hurdles as he qualified for the semi-final with a new season’s best of 48.47.
Elsewhere on the track, Rosemary Chukwuma also qualified for the semi-final of the women’s 100m in 11.24 sec.
The 21-year-old will, however, need to put up a spectacular performance on Monday if she is to join the exclusive list of Nigerian athletes to run in the final of the 100m Women’s event.
Mary Onyali, Mercy Nku, Damola Osayomi, and Blessing Okagbare are the only Nigerian women that have run in the 100m final in the history of the World Athletics Championships.
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