Budapest 23: Ese Brume not among favoutites to make the podium

Budapest 23: Ese Brume not among favoutites to make the podium

Oregon 2022 World Athletics Championships long jump silver medalists Team Nigeria Ese Brume is not among the favourite to win a medal in the 2023 edition in Budapest according to World Athletics.

According to World Athletics,  a new winner will emerge in the women’s long jump and with four athletes having jumped seven metres or more this season, and with eight of them within the 6.90m range, the stage is set for an electrifying contest.

Germany’s 2019 and 2022 winner Malaika Mihambo, who also won Olympic gold in Tokyo, is out of the championships due to injury, and her rivals would no doubt cherish their prospect of one less hurdle to surmount.

Topping the world standings is Jamaican Ackelia Smith, who soared to a personal best  of 7.08m to win the Big 12 Conference Championships, taking her to second on the Jamaican all-time list. The 21-year-old NCAA champion will be making her World Championships debut and will hope to become the first Jamaican woman in World Championships history to win a medal in the event.

Over the years, USA have won a total of eight gold medals, and the trio of Tara Davis-Woodhall, Quanesha Burks and Jasmine Moore will aim to continue that tradition, with four-time winner Brittney Reese being the last champion from the US (2017).

Ranked fourth in the world, Davis-Woodhall has gone over seven metres three times this season, including a wind-aided mark of 7.11m (2.1m/s) set at the USATF Bermuda Grand Prix back in May, and a season’s best of 7.07m two weeks prior. The US champion has recorded top three finishes in her three Diamond League appearances this season, and having missed out on competing at the World Championships last year, the 24-year-old will have a point to prove in Budapest. 

Moore will be going for the long jump and triple jump double at these championships, as she did in Oregon last year, and will first compete in the former. With a PB leap of 7.03m, which she posted to win at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the 22-year-old will hope to replicate that form once again.

Burks was beaten to the bronze medal in Oregon by Brazilian Leticia Oro Melo, whose jump of 6.89m was just 1cm farther than the US athlete’s. Burks’ victory at the London Diamond League, where she jumped 6.98m, will be a big boost to her confidence ahead of the championships.

Like mother like daughter

While her rise in the women’s long jump would appear as sudden to some, it is evident that Larissa Iapichino has been putting in the work as she follows in the footsteps of her mum, two-time world champion Fiona May. The European U23 champion, who won the U20 title in 2019, stunned the likes of Mihambo and Ivana Vuleta to secure three consecutive Diamond League victories, first on her home turf in Florence, and then in Stockholm and Monaco, where she was inspired to a PB of 6.95m.

The city of Budapest holds some significance for the silver medallist at this year’s European Indoor Championships. Exactly 25 years ago, her mother ascended to the long-standing Italian record of 7.11m during the 1998 European Championships where she claimed a silver medal, and as the 21-year-old heads to the same city, a thought on her mind must be breaking that record, having already erased her indoor national record of 6.91m, replacing it with 6.97m.

With an illustrious career spanning nearly two decades and with a massive PB of 7.24m, two world indoor titles, two World Championships bronze medals and four Diamond League trophies among many other impressive laurels, clinching a long-evasive global gold medal would be the prefect icing for Vuleta. Coming with a best this year of 6.98m, which she set at the European Indoor Championships where she won bronze, the 33-year-old Serbian has shown no signs of slowing down.

Great Britain’s Jazmin Sawyers will be making her fourth appearance at the World Championships, and replicating her 7.00m jump at the European Indoor Championships where she struck gold, would greatly improve her chances for a medal.

Asian champion Sumire Hata (6.97m), Romanian Alina Rotaru-Kottmann (6.96m), Marthe Koala (6.94m) of Burkina Faso and Serbian Milica Gardasevic (6.91m) are hitting form at the right time.

Silver medallist from Oregon, Ese Brume, will target a longer jump than her season’s best of 6.81m if she’s to be in contention for a medal. The same is the case for Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, the silver medallist at Doha 2019, whose best jump this year is 6.59m recorded at the Diamond League in Florence. The 2022 European champion will also compete for honours in the triple jump.

Yemi Olus-Galadima for World Athletics