KEY POINTS
- Ezekiel Nathaniel breaks 400m hurdles record in Tokyo.
- He finished fourth after disqualification drama in the final.
- His performance inspires young Nigerian athletes worldwide.
Ezekiel Nathaniel came within a whisker of winning Nigeria’s second medal at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, but still left with a national record and a message of hope for future stars.
The 22-year-old clocked 47.11 seconds in the men’s 400m hurdles final on Friday, slashing his previous mark of 47.31 and becoming only the second Nigerian since Henry Amike in 1987 to reach the World Championships final in the event.
Ezekiel Nathaniel breaks 400m hurdles record
Nathaniel finished fourth in a dramatic final that saw American Rai Benjamin win gold in 46.52 seconds. Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos claimed silver in 46.84, while Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba took bronze in 47.06 just ahead of Nathaniel.
Benjamin was briefly disqualified for crashing into the last hurdle, which would have bumped Nathaniel into bronze position. But officials overturned the decision on appeal, reinstating the American’s gold medal.
Nigerian hurdler says near miss inspires hope
Despite the setback, Nathaniel praised the ruling and stayed upbeat about his own breakthrough. “I hope this performance will inspire young Nigerian athletes,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to learn from the world’s best athletes.”
The former 800m runner, now competing for Baylor University in Texas, said he was proud of setting a personal best. “I still have a lot of potential. I just need to wait for the right time,” he said.
From NCAA champion to global contender
Nathaniel’s rise has been rapid. He first broke Nigeria’s long-standing 400m hurdles record in 2022 with 48.42 seconds as a freshman. This year, he won the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Oregon with 47.49 — the third-fastest time in NCAA history.
The Tokyo final capped a remarkable season that also saw him become the first man in NCAA history to run a sub-48-second semifinal. With his latest performance, Nathaniel has firmly established himself among the world’s elite hurdlers.
While his fourth-place finish mirrors Amike’s result at the 1987 Rome championships, Nathaniel’s national record signals a brighter future for Nigeria in the hurdles. The country’s Tokyo campaign closed with Tobi Amusan as its sole medallist, improving on the team’s medal-less showing in Budapest.
