by Deji Ogeyingbo
Deji Ogeyingbo visited Benin, Nigeria to cover the 2022 Nigerian Athletics Championships for RunBlogRun. Deji did a column for each day. This is the column and photos for day 3 of 3.
Ese Brume retains Long Jump title at Nigerian Championships
NIGERIA, Benin (June 26, 2022)—World and Olympic bronze medalist in the women’s Long Jump, Ese Brume defended her Nigerian Championship title with relative ease leaping to a distance of 6.89m.
After opening with a first-round effort of 6.58m, the African record holder shot straight into the lead ahead of Texas Tech Ruth Usoro who could only manage a jump of 6.04m in her first jump.
Usoro however produced a very big leap of 6.53m in the second round, an effort that prompted Brume to uncork a huge 6.89m in the third round. It proved decisive as the recently crowned world indoor bronze medallist was able to cement her victory with yet another title. Ruth Agadama finished third with a jump of 6.10m.
Brume said “I feel excited about winning yet another National title. I like the fact that other women, like Usoro and Agadama are getting into their strides and also pushing me on the home turf.”
Elsewhere on the field, Baylor University freshman, Prosper Nnamdi, proved his world junior bronze medal wasn’t a fluke as he delivered a fantastic performance on his way to winning the men’s javelin final with a mark of 78.07m. This win surely will go a long way in consoling Nnamdi who narrowly missed out on a podium finish at the just concluded NCAA Division 1 championship fifth in the final.
Another star attraction came in the men’s 200m. Middle Tennessee’s freshman, Alaba Akintola made up for his loss to Favour Ashe in the men’s 100m as he stormed to a very fast 20.51s to win the National title for the first time in his career.
In the men’s High Jump final, African Championships Silver medallist Mike Edwards won with a season’s best of 2.20m.
