Thursday, the 8th of August, was a day to forget quickly as Team Nigeria recorded a series of poor, unexpected results and performances at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which climaxed with Ese Brume’s failure to deliver a medal in the Women’s Long Jump event.
Expectations were high among Nigerians going into the day, for at least a medal is guaranteed for Nigeria with Ese Brume as the best prospect, albeit any colour after winning she won the Bronze medal in the event four years ago in Tokyo, in between back to back podium finish in the Athletics World Championships in Doha (2019) and Eugene (2022).
Alas, she started slowly on the night; she had the best jump of the night, covering only a 6.70 m distance and ended up in the fifth position as the best Nigerian jumper on the night to cap a Thursday of disappointments for Team Nigeria at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The other Nigerians in the final of women’s long jump final, Ruth Usoro and Pristina Ochonogor could only finish In the 10th and 12th positions returning a distance of 6.58m and 6 24 m respectively as they watched the United States of America Davis -Woodhall takes away the gold medal with 7.10m jump, Germany Mihambo with a jump of 6.98 took the silver medal while Moore J of The United States of America picked the bronze medal with a leap of 6.96 m.
The result was a sad end to Nigeria’s Athlete’s performance on the 13th day of the game as underwhelming performances characterise the day.
The day started with the failure of the 4× 100 m relay men’s and women’s teams in their bid to reach the final.
The Nigerian quartet of Justina Eyakpobeyan, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma & Tima Godbless finished 6th in heat 2, running a Season’s Best of 42.70s.
The Nigeria men’s finished 7th in heat 1 of men’s 4x100m as well as posting their season-best as the quartet of Favour Ashe, Kanyinsola Ajayi, Alaba Akintola and Usheoritse Itsekiri gave it their all in the race to return 38.20s.
Nigeria’s Edose Ibadin missed out on a place in the semifinals of men’s 800m as the Nigerian record holder finished 7th in his Repechage heat with a time of 1:49.09, and won’t progress to the next round.
It was another below-per-performance from the highly-rated Nigeria wrestler Odunayo Adekuoroye.
Adekuoroye was outwitted in the quarterfinal of women’s wrestling 57kg freestyle bout by China’s Kexin Hong, 10-8, throwing away a 4-0 lead.
It was the end of the road for Nigeria’s Canoeing duo, Ayomide Bello and Beauty Otuedo, as they rowed their canoe out of the Paris 2024 Olympics, failing to go past the quarter-finals.
Nigeria also lost ground in weightlifting, one of the advantageous sports, as weightlifter Rafiat Lawal lost out on her event despite her gallant effort.
Nigeria is running out of time to meet their best-ever finish at the Olympics, which happened at the Atlanta 96 edition, where the country won three golds, 1 silver and three bronze medals, totalling six medals.
All hope is now on Tobi Amusan, who will be running in the 100m women’s semi-final on Friday morning and later in the evening in the final. Hopefully, she qualifies.
A little ray of hope is brimming in the men’s 4 × 400 m relay on Friday as the chase for the first medal is fast becoming an endless chase for Team Nigeria.
