Brume promises better outing at Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games

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Ese Brume. PHOTO: FRANCK FIFE / AFP

One of Nigeria’s athletes to the just-concluded 2017 World IAAF Championships in London, long jumper, Ese Brume says she would use the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia to make up for her not-too- impressive outing at the competition.

Ese Brume failed to qualify from her group as she managed a 6.38m jump, which was way below her season’s best in London.Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, Brume, who won a gold medal for Nigeria at the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, as well as the African Senior Athletics Championship in Morocco, said she went to London with the hope of making a remarkable achievement, but things couldn’t work in her favour.

“Though it was my first time competing in the IAAF World Athletics Championship at the senior level, I was really determined to get something in London,” she said. “Somehow, things didn’t work out well because in all my jumps, I was not getting it right at the point of my take off from the board. I was always missing the target.

“To worsen my case, my coach was not allowed to travel with me to London. Perhaps, if he was there and gave me the necessary corrections, things could have worked out better,” she stated.

However, Brume, who made big headline at the 2013 African Youth Athletics Championship in Mauritius, winning two gold and a silver medal for Team Nigeria, says she would turn the London misadventure into success for Nigeria in next year’s Commonwealth Games holding in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia from April 4-15.

“I will be returning to my base is North Cyprus early next month and I have set a target for myself ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. I will sure defend my gold medal,” she assured.

Brume praised the leadership of the AFN, as well as sports ministry officials for what she termed ‘good care’ she received in London. “The way they treated us in London was worth commending. Despite the fact that we couldn’t win any medal, they paid us our full entitlement. That was not the case in the past. Those who attended the last IAAF World Championship said they were not paid, so we should commend them. But they can do more for us, especially in the build up to the Commonwealth Games in Australia and the African Senior Athletics Championship, Asaba 2018,” Brume stated.