I’m recovering fast, Brume tells athletics fans

Amusan, Ofili, Others Miss Track Grand Slam
Olympics bronze medallist, Ese Brume, says she is recovering fast from the recent ‘horrible’ car crash in the United States. Brume, who won Nigeria’s long jump bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, narrowly survived the crash in which the car she was travelling with her friend, a Briton, was squeezed after it was hit from behind by an SUV.

While Brume had a sprained ankle and strained neck during the accident, her British friend strained her shoulder, had a brain concussion and some cuts.

The news of Brume’s car crash in the United States caused a major panic back home, particularly, among athletics followers after seeing pictures of the crash.

However, Brume told The Guardian in a telephone chat yesterday that she is recovering fast .
“I am getting better,” she said. “My friend is also recovering fast. I thank all those who sent words across to me. I am hopeful everything will be alright and I will be back in training soon. ”

Brume’s bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was Nigeria’s only track and field medal at the Olympics after Blessing Okagbare had won a silver medal in Beijing.

Meanwhile, reigning world 100m hurdles record holder, Tobi Amusan, Olympics 200m finalist, Favour Ofili, 2023 NCAA 200m champion, Udodi Onwuzurike and a few other Nigerian athletes will not be part of the Grand Slam Racers following the announcement of the final five to round out the class of 48 athletes signed to compete in all four Slams of inaugural Grand Slam Track in the coming season.

Former US four-time Olympics champion, Michael Johnson launched the Grand Slam Track, set to be the new global home of professional track competition, earlier this year and on Thursday announced the signings of Caleb Dean, Diribe Welteji, Freddie Crittenden, Brittany Brown, and Zharnel Hughes.

According to SportsNow.com, they are the final five of 48 signed racers to be announced, and all of them will compete in all four Slam events during the league’s inaugural 2025 season.

What this means is that no Nigerian track athlete will compete as racers in the new global track only competition.

Johnson has, however, not slammed the door totally on the Nigerian track stars, as they still have opportunity to be among the 48 additional ‘Challengers’ that will be announced in due course to compete at the Slams in Kingston, Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

While the racers will receive a yearly compensation for racing in each Slam, they are eligible for full prize money and will also receive yearly contracts, access to the Grand Slam Track content and data services team, inclusion in the league collective, group licensing and new revenue opportunities, plus access to world class athlete support services throughout the season. The Challengers will only be paid a set appearance fee to compete at individual Slams in addition to the prize money on offer.

‘The winner of each Slam group will take home $100,000 in prize money, and the 8th place competitor will earn $10,000 from the total prize money of $12.6m that will be awarded across the slams each year.

This will be in addition to the base compensation and appearance fees paid to racers.