August, 20 2023.
_Ese Brume Primed To Win Nigeria's First Medal_
Action at the 19th edition of the World Athletics Championships being staged in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, enters Day-2 on Sunday with Team Nigeria athletes, involved in some of the eye-catching events.
The Women's Discus throw is scheduled for 8am, Women's 400 meters hurdles heats which starts at 8.35am and the Men's 400 meters heats billed to spike off at 9.25am are the morning session events, in which Nigeria will be fielding athletes.
Other notable races scheduled for this morning are the Men's 400 meters hurdles heats, beginning at 10.25am and Women's 100 meters heats slated for 11:10am.
The competition will then be paused for athletes and officials to observe a break, before returning to the stadium for the Afternoon Session, which should be of key interest to Nigerians as two of her sprinters, Usheoritse Itsekiri and Seye Ogunlewe will be out there at about 15:35pm looking to qualify for the Men's 100 meters final.
One of Team Nigeria's brightest prospect for a podium finish in Budapest, Ese Brume has the opportunity to earn Nigeria's first medal, when competition in the Women's Long Jump final which starts at 15:55pm.
Brume qualified for the final, ranked No. 4 with a jump of 6:72 meters, and she will be looking to improve on her leap of 7:00 metres in Eugene, Oregon, USA that won her the Bronze medal at the last edition of the championships.
Day-2 activities will culminate in the final of the Men's 100 meters Blue Riband race, which is programmed to spike off at 18:10pm, and also serve as the day's show stopper.
Hopefully, one or both of Team Nigeria's Usheoritse Itsekiri and Seye Ogunlewe should be able to finish in the top four of their respective semifinal races, to qualify as one of the eight men's 100 meters finalists.
The last time a Nigerian man made a World Championships final in 100 meters was in 2007, when Olusoji Fasuba finished 4th and just outside the podium places.
Nigeria had also not been represented in the men’s sprint final at the Olympics, since Davidson Ezinwa achieved the feat in Atlanta ’96.
But Enoch Adegoke did so in 2021, to become the first Nigerian to qualify for the Olympics 100 meters final in 25 years, at the delayed Japan 2020 games.
The 23-year-old dipped 10.00 seconds to finish second in heat 2 of the semi-final, in Tokyo www.ckdmedia.ng reports.
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