African record holder in the women’s Long Jump, Ese Brume is over the moon after winning Nigeria’s first athletics medal since 2008, taking bronze with her best leap of 6.97m in a highly competitive final at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Speaking with members of the press after her spectacular feat, Brume, who finished third behind Germany’s Malaika Mihambo and USA’s Brittney Reese, stated that the colour of her medal doesn’t really matter as she is just excited at having finished on the podium.
The Doha 2019 bronze medallist said: “I’m just excited, I’m grateful. I’m super happy that I was able to make it to the top three. I really want to thank God. I can’t contain my joy; it doesn’t matter the medal; I’m just super happy I made top three.”
When asked what the medal means to her, she said:
“This medal means that God is alive, Jesus is alive. It has been a great season even though I got injured in April, but I never settled for less. I never looked at the situation but I kept on pushing and my coach kept on pushing and told me ‘Ese you can do it’. Thank God I’m here today”.
Back in May, the three-time African champion soared to a world lead and African record of 7.17m and she says that superlative feat boosted her confidence coming to Tokyo.
“Setting the African Record boosted my confidence because then my injury was still fresh yet I was able to set that record and a personal best, so I thought to myself that yes I could do it and my coach thought same as well, so we never settled for less,” she added.
Brume also offered words of encouragement to her teammates that were unable to compete at the Games.
She said: “And to those who were here but could not compete, never settle for less. God is with you. It is not over until it is over. You may not have competed here today but God has a better future ahead for you.”
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.
Reese and Brume finished tied on 6.97 but the American took the silver owing to her second-best jump of 6.95 which was five centimetres longer than Brume’s 6.90.
Meanwhile, Brume is expected to compete in the women’s 4x100m which gets underway on Thursday.
