Nigeria’s Ese Brume last performance on Sunday helped seventh-place Team Nigeria record their best ever outing at the Commonwealth Games in 28 years, after her record-breaking leap of 7.00m at the commonwealth in Birmingham on Sunday.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games which it closing ceremony will be taking place at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium on Monday 8 August, and will pass the baton to the 2026 hosts, Victoria in Australia.
On course to winning the country’s 12th gold medal of the event, Brume achieved it in style, breaking the Commonwealth Games record in the women’s long jump twice, on the way to her golden performance.
Her effort made sure the Team Nigeria had 12 gold, nine silver and 14 bronze medals, overwhelming their previous best performance at the Games in 1994 in Victoria when the country won 11 gold 13 silver and 13 bronze in Victoria, Canada.
Ese Brume started under pressure but put herself in commanding position for the gold medal after her fourth attempt gave her a new Games record of 6.99m.
The commonwealth long jump defending champion then broke the Games record a few minutes later with her last attempt, after a leap of 7.00m to put her way ahead of the trailing crowd, to clinch Nigeria’s last gold of Day 10.
After amassing an impressive 14 medals on Saturday, taking their medal haul to nine gold, eight silver and 13 bronze medals, for a total of 30 medals on Day 9, the athletes then stepped up their performance for the historic outing at the Games.
Meanwhile, prior to Sunday’s outings, the team medal haul placed them in joint-third with the squad that amassed the same number of medals – 11 gold, eight silver and 14 bronze – at the 2010 edition in Delhi.
Recall that Nigeria’s second best outing was at the Glasgow edition of the Games in 2014 with 11 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze medals.
Fresh from setting a new world record and turning the new world champion at the World Athletics Champion in Oregon, hurdler Tobi Amusan set the tone on Sunday as she claimed one of the three gold medals Team Nigeria needed to win to shatter their performance of 28 years ago.
Amusan successfully defended the 100m hurdles title she won in 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia to become the first Nigerian athlete in history to successfully defend a Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles title as she finished the final in 12.30secs to claim Nigeria’s 10th gold medal in Birmingham.
Less than two hours after claiming their 10th gold medal in Birmingham, Team Nigeria women’s relay team, led by Amusan, entered the history books after winning the country’s first-ever gold medal in the 4X100m women’s event in the competition.
However, all eyes were however on Brume to deliver the country’s record-breaking medal in Birmingham in the long jump and she delivered to send fans at the stadium into wild celebrations Sunday night.
A notable contrast would be that unlike in 1994, the men dominated proceedings, winning nine out of the 11 gold medals at the global tournament, and winning 31 out of the total 37 medals, while the women won just six.
Meanwhile, in this year’s edition, the women have grabbed all the headlines, and have rewritten the history books.
The female athletes have since then won all nine of Nigeria’s gold medals at the Games in Birmingham, and a total of 22 medals, while the male athletes have won just eight with the total tally at 30.
Here is the list of the names and events that fetched Nigeria all the gold medals.
1. Adijat Adenike Olarinoye
Weightlifting, Women’s 55kg
2. Rafiatu Folashade Lawal
Weightlifting, Women’s 59kg
3. Chioma Onyekwere
Women’s Discus Throw
4. Goodness Chiemerie Nwachukwu
Women’s Discus Throw F42-44/61-64
5. Alice Folashade Oluwafemiayo
Women’s Heavyweight
6. Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye
Wrestling, Women’s Freestyle 57 kg
7. Blessing Oborududu
Wrestling, Women’s Freestyle 68 kg
8. Eucharia Njideka Iyiazi
Women’s F55-57 Shot Put
9. Miesinnei Mercy Genesis
Wrestling, Women’s Freestyle 50 kg
10. Tobi Amusan
Women’s 100m Hurdles
11. Nigeria
Women’s 4 x 100m Relay
12. Ese Brume Long Jump
