Sports
Chioma Ajunwa’s 25-year African record broken by Ese Brume
Chioma Ajunwa’s reign as Africa’s long jump record holder has been brought to an end 25 years after the Atlanta ’96 Olympics heroine set the record.
The new holder is another Nigerian athlete, Ese Brume, who set a new record for herself on Sunday morning at the Chula Vista Field Festival in the city of Chula Vista in Southern California.
Brume, a 2019 World Athletics Championship long jump bronze medalist, reserved her best till the very last round in California to leap to an incredible 7.17m.
Brume who was just eight months old when Ajunwa made that Golden Leap in Atlanta Olympics however showed signs of a big jump in the offing when she opened her campaign with a 6.75m leap, a new personal season’s best.
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This was followed by a series of 6.8m jumps before soaring high to land with an incredible mark of 7.17m, the farthest any Nigerian nay African woman has ever jumped, legally or otherwise.
The farthest before now legally was Ajunwa’s leap in Atlanta while Blessing Okagbare, one of only three Nigerians to ever hit the 7m mark jumped a wind-aided 7.14m (+2.2mps) in Doha in 2013.
Ese has not only become the African record holder in the event, she is also the world leader with less than 60 days to the Tokyo Olympics.
She has also moved up in the event’s world all-time list to 22nd while her compatriots, Ajunwa is 32nd and Okagbare with her legal 7.00m jump at the Stade Louis II in Monaco in July 2013 is ranked 70th.
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