2014 Commonwealth Games champion Ese Brume made a winning return at the Jamaica International Invitational, leaping to a Meeting Record (MR) and Season’s Best (SB) of 6.82m to win the women’s Long Jump in Kingston.
What a way to make a statement from Brume who was so good on the day, that she narrowly missed out on matching her Personal Best (PB) of 6.83m, which she jumped two years ago in Akure.
It was by no means an easy field, but Brume was dominant to emerge tops. USA’s Shakeelah Saunders finished 2nd with a mark of 6.65m, while Jamaica’s Tissanna Hickling was 3rd with a mark of 6.60m.
Such was the competition that Loraine Ugen finished 4th with 6.57m, World Leader Christabel Nettey 5th with 6.54m, and former world champion Tianna Bartoletta 6th with a mark of 6.51m.
It must be noted that the Jamaican Invitational is Brume’s 2nd competitive outing this season having participated at the Adana Turkey Koç festival ( University Run Festival) earlier this month where she won won gold jumping a distance of 6.57m. This new SB of 6.82m will see her ranked at No.4 in the world this year.
Brume has already bettered last year’s SB of 6.64m, and would be delighted at how well she has started off this year, having had a mixed season in 2017 which saw her not making the finals of the Long Jump event at the World Championships in London, a year after she finished 5th at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Having missed the Lausanne Diamond League last year due to some hitches, Brume could be back on the big stage this year and has now shown that she is ready to rub shoulders with the best in the world.
