Hopes are already high in Team Nigeria’s Camp for a possible gold medal in the women’s 100meters hurdles and long jump event as Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume file out in their finals today, at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
Amusan, who won the 100meters hurdles (12:12seconds), at Oregon 2022 Athletics Championship on July 24, qualified for the final of the Women’s 100meters hurdles on Friday with a win (12.40seconds) in her heat.
Some officials of Team Nigeria, who spoke with The Guardian yesterday, were of the opinion that Amusan stands a better chance of winning the gold medal since the level of opposition in Birmingham is not as high as the Championships.
To them, the absence of American hurdlers in the Commonwealth Games will work in Amusan’s favour.
Apart from being Nigeria’s first-ever gold medallist in the Athletics Championship, Amusan’s 12.06 seconds mark, wind-added (+2.5 m/s), was the first in 36 years.
It was also the 4th world record set in women’s hurdles, as the first two world records were set far back in 1969, when Nigeria was fighting civil war. Then, women hurdles were moving up from the 80meters to the present day 100meters.
Also this evening, Ese Brume will attempt to win her second Commonwealth Games medal at Alexander Arena.
On Friday, Brume recorded a 6.81m (+0.3) jump to gain automatic qualification in Group B, while another Nigerian, Ruth Usoro, recorded 6.59m (+1.0), which was enough to earn her one of the non automatic qualification spot in the final in Group A.
In 2014, Brume made big headlines in Glasgow, Scotland, where she won the Commonwealth Games gold medal, her first major competition at the senior level.
She was denied the opportunity of defending her title at the 2018 edition of the Commonwealth Games held in the Gold Coast, Australia, after the former board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), omitted her name in the list of 28 athletes for the Games.
The Delta State-born long jumper got a silver medal for Team Nigeria on July 24 at the Athletics Championship in Oregon.
