Paris 2024: A Thursday to forget as Ese Brume jumps out of the medal zone

Thursday, August 8 was a day to quickly forget as Team Nigeria recorded a series of poor and unexpected results and performances at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, culminating in Ese Brume’s failure to secure a medal in the women’s long jump event.

Expectations were high among Nigerians ahead of the day as at least one medal is guaranteed for Nigeria with Ese Brume the best prospect, though of any colour after winning, she won the bronze medal in the event four years ago in Tokyo, between consecutive podium finishes at the World Athletics Championships in Doha (2019) and Eugene (2022).

Unfortunately, she started slowly that night; she had the best jump of the night, covering a distance of just 6.70m and finished in fifth position as the best Nigerian jumper of the night to cap a Thursday of disappointment for Team Nigeria at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The other Nigerians in the women’s long jump final, Ruth Usoro and Pristina Ochonogor could only finish in 10th and 12th position returning a distance of 6.58m and 6.24m respectively as they saw America’s Davis-Woodhall take the gold medal with a jump of 7.10m, Germany’s Mihambo with a jump of 6.98 took the silver medal while Moore J of the United States of America collected the bronze medal with a jump of 6.96m.

The result was a sad end to the performance of Nigeria’s athletes on day 13 of the game as disappointing performances characterised the day.

The day began with the failure of the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams in their attempt to reach the final.

The Nigerian quartet of Justina Eyakpobeyan, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Tima Godbless finished sixth in heat 2, with a season-record time of 42.70 seconds.

Nigeria’s men’s team finished seventh in Heat 1 of the men’s 4x100m and also recorded a season-best time as the quartet of Favour Ashe, Kanyinsola Ajayi, Alaba Akintola and Usheoritse Itsekiri gave it their all in the race to come back in 38.20s.

Nigeria’s Edose Ibadin missed out on a place in the men’s 800m semi-finals as the Nigerian record holder finished seventh in his repechage heat in a time of 1:49.09, and will not advance to the next round.

It was another below-expected performance from highly-rated Nigerian wrestler Odunayo Adekuoroye.

Adekuoroye was outclassed in the quarterfinals of the women’s 57kg freestyle wrestling bout by China’s Kexin Hong, 10-8, squandering a 4-0 lead.

It was the end of the road for Nigerian canoeing duo Ayomide Bello and Beauty Otuedo as they paddled their canoe out of the Paris 2024 Olympics, failing to make it past the quarter-finals.

Nigeria also lost ground in weightlifting, one of the sports with an advantage, as weightlifter Rafiat Lawal lost her event despite her valiant efforts.

Nigeria is running out of time to achieve its best result at the Olympic Games, achieved at the Atlanta 96 edition, where the country won three gold medals, one silver and three bronze, totalling six medals.

All hopes are now pinned on Tobi Amusan, who will run in the women’s 100m semi-final on Friday morning and later in the afternoon in the final. Hopefully she will qualify.

A small ray of hope shines in Friday’s men’s 4x400m relay, as the quest for a first medal is fast becoming a never-ending chase for Team Nigeria.

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