Olympics: Nigeria’s medal hopes dim as Brume, Oduduru falter

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Olympics: Nigeria’s medal hopes dim as Brume, Oduduru falter

Nigeria’s quest for an Olympic medal continued on a woeful note in the early hours of Thursday after two of the country’s medal hopes, Ese Brume and Ejowvokoghene Oduduru, failed to soar at their separate events.

Brume, a track and field athlete who specialises in the long jump and holds the African junior record in the event, fell a distant fifth behind 30-year-old Tianna Bartoletta of the United State in the finals of the women’s long jump.

She could only muster a leap of 6.81m while Bartoletta won the event after jumping 7.17m.

Meanwhile, Ejowvokoghene Oduduru could not gather the speed and pace which took him to the semifinals of the 200m track event behind Usain Bolt after clocking 20.59sec, a notable time difference from the 20.34sec he ran in round one.

Gatlin out

American sprinter Justin Gatlin failed to qualify for the men’s 200m at the Olympics on Thursday.

Gatlin, who has served two doping bans, finished third in 20.13sec and missed out on one of the eight final berths for Fridays’s final.