Tokyo 2025: Ezekiel to Battle Olympic and World Champions, World Record Holder as Final Entry Confirmed for 400m Hurdles
Nigeria’s Nathaniel Ezekiel will probably have to set a new lifetime best and, also, become the sixth man in history to break 47 seconds if he is desirous of becoming the first Nigerian to make the World Championships podium in the men’s 400m hurdles, following the release of the final entry list for the event by World Athletics on Friday.
In the list, the Nigerian has been confirmed to face Karsten Warholm, the world record holder (45.94), who is a three-time world champion (2017, 2019, and 2023) and the 2021 Olympic champion.
Warholm is among the three athletes who have broken 47 seconds this year and one of only five in history to do so.
The Nigerian will also face reigning Olympic champion and three-time World Championships medalist, USA’s Rai Benjamin, who has also broken 47 seconds this year (46.54), as well as 2022 world champion Alison Dos Santos of Brazil, who has dipped inside 47 seconds this year (46.54).
Another tough opponent ranked higher than the Nigerian this year is Qatari athlete Abderrahman Samba, the fifth man in history to have dipped inside 47 seconds, with a season’s best of 47.09 seconds. Samba won a bronze medal in the event in 2019.
Ezekiel is ranked fifth in the world in the event and has had a meteoric rise in a year he made history as the first Nigerian to break 47 seconds and compete in the Diamond League final.
The 22-year-old is poised to become the second Nigerian, after Henry Amike in 1987, to run in the final of the event at the World Championships and could make standalone history as the first to win a medal.
