EZEKIEL Nathaniel has become the first Nigerian to reach the men’s 400m hurdles final at the World Athletics Championships since Henry Amike in 1987.
The 22-year-old achieved the feat today after winning his semi-final in sensational fashion at the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics.
Nathaniel not only finished first in his semi-final, his time of 47.47 seconds was the fastest of all eight athletes who qualified for the final, scheduled for Friday.
The last Nigerian to reach the men’s 400m hurdles final was Amike in 1987 in Italy, where he eventually finished sixth in 48.63s.
Nathaniel, Nigeria’s current national record holder in the event, finished ahead of Qatar’s Ismail Abakar, who set a new personal best of 47.61s, and United States of America’s Caleb Dean in 47.85s.
Nathaniel will be gunning for Nigeria’s second Tokyo 2025 medal after Tobi Amusan’s women’s 100m hurdles silver, but he faces a tough test against top stars like Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos, Norwegian world record holder Karsten Warholm and USA’s Rai Benjamin.
In the men’s 200m, Nigeria’s Udodi Onwuzurike came second in his heat in 20.27s to qualify for the semi-finals, just holding off Sinesipho Dambile of South Africa, who was given the same time in third place.
Kenny Bednarek of USA won the heat in a time of 19.98s.