The Interview Editors
Ese Brume on December 11 added the National Sports Festival Long Jump title to the 2018 African Senior Athletics Championship’s she won few months ago in Asaba. The Delta born athlete says she looks forward to winning more medals in 2019. Excerpts…
How do you feel breaking a 12-year-old National Sports Festival record created by Chinedu Odozor at the 2006 Gateway Game?
I am excited and happy, I am grateful to God and my coaches who have brought me this far, I am so grateful to them all.
You won the African championships this year and now the festival title, could you say 2018 was a special year for you?
I will say it is a special year for me because I just came back from Shiloh (a yearly religious programme by Winners Chapel). Actually that was on a lighter mood but I can say it was part of it for me. I try to also put in my best even though it was off season for me, I am thankful to God because it is all by His Grace.
You ended 2018 with a medal, what should people expect from Brume in 2019?
I am hoping that with hard work and by God grace, this medal thing will flow into the New Year and also to get a new Personal Best. There are lots of championships for me in the New Year and the biggest one of them the World Championships, so I hope to be on the podium too.
Olympic Games are in 2020 and you are one of the hopes of the nation, how do you want to get ready in the next one and half year?
I am actually trying to trust the process and also have trust in my coach. Seriously speaking apart from God, I have faith in my coach, even when I know I am not as strong as what expected of me, if my coach tells me this is it, then I have trust and try to do it because I know it will work for me and it has always be like that.
How have you been combining your education and career as an athlete?
It has not been easy but I tried my best to push and with hard work and grace of God, I have been at the top in both.
