Tokyo Olympics: Oborududu, Brume Win Silver, Bronze For Nigeria

Expectedly, Nigerian female athletes are blazing the country’s medal trail at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics with a silver and bronze medals already in their kitty.

The country’s star performers so far are wrestler, Blessing Oborududu, who won the silver medal and Ese Brume, a bronze-medallist in the long jump event.

In the final of women’s freestyle 68kg, Oborududu was unlucky losing 4-1 to her USA’s opponent, Tamyra Mensah-Stock on Tuesday (today).

The first Nigerian wrestler ever to win a silver medal at the Olympics, Oborududu qualified for the final bout after dazing Mongolia’s Soronzonboldyn Battsetseg 7-2 in the semi-finals.

On her match to the podium, the African Champion defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Meerim Zhumanazarova 3-2 in the quarter-finals, after seeing off Azerbaijan’s Elis Manolova in the Round of 16.

Oborududu has been a gold medallist at the African Wrestling Championships every year for the last 11 years, except in 2012 when she did not compete due to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Earlier in the day, Ese Brume won bronze in the Olympic Long Jump event after qualifying for the final stage on Sunday morning when she leapt to a distance of 6.76m, 1cm more than the required mark to seal her place.

In the finals, Brume, clinched the bronze with a 6.97m jump while Germany’s Malaika Mihambo got the gold medal with 7.00m jump and USA’s Brittney Reese bagged silver after jumping 6.97m on count back.

Brume was Nigeria’s sole representative in the jumps at Tokyo following the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) disqualification of Ruth Usoro for not meeting the required out-of-competition standard procedures.

Besides Chioma Ajunwa’s gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games, Blessing Okagbare is the other Nigerian to have won a medal in the Olympics Long Jump event clinching silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.