Nathaniel Ezekiel must go past three 47 seconds runners in bid to become first Nigerian in 400m hurdles final in 36 years!

Nigeria 400m hurdles record holder, Nathaniel Ezekiel will have to go past at least three 47 plus seconds runners if he is to become the first Nigerian in 36 years to run in the final of the event.

The 20 year old qualified for his second straight semifinal on Sunday morning, running a 48.47 seconds personal season’s best to pick one of the four
automatic qualification spots in his first round heat.

Nathaniel will now be seeking to go past his semifinal appearance a year ago in Oregon to equal the feat achieved by Henry Amike who made history as the
first, and so far only, Nigerian to run in the final of the event.

Amike ran 48.63 to finish sixth in the final ran at the Olympic stadium in Rome, Italy.

Nathaniel will run in the first semifinal heat of the 400m hurdles on Monday at 6.33pm Nigerian tile and has been drawn in lane nine.

The Nigerian will compete for the two automatic qualifying spots in the final with the trio of USA’s CJ Allen who ran 47.58 to set a lifetime best at the
Bislett Games Diamond League meeting in Oslo, Norway in June; Estonia’s Rasmus Magi who holds a lifetime best of 47.82 but ran a 48.04 personal season’s best
at the Estonian Championships at the end of July and British Virgin Islands’ Kyron Mcmaster who has dipped inside 48 seconds (47.26) last month.