Okezie, Ogazi battle stacked field in men’s 400m at World Championships

Reigning African Games champion, Chidi Okezie, and NCAA champion, Samuel Ogazi, will have to be at their very best after getting drawn in tough first-round heats in the men’s 400m at the ongoing 20th World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

Okezie will run first in the second of six first-round heats, where the first three of each heat plus the six fastest times will qualify for the semifinal.

The Nigerian, 32, with a 44.98 personal season’s best, will race against six other athletes who have also dipped inside 45 seconds this year, led by Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, a 43-second runner who is the fastest in the field this year with 44.10 seconds.

Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori has done 44.25 this year, as well as home boy Yuki Joseph Nakajima (44.84), Alexander Doom of Belgium (44.66), Elián Larregina of Argentina (44.53), and Jamaica’s Bovel McPherson (44.78).

For Ogazi, a finalist at the Paris Olympics last year, his biggest challengers on paper will be USA’s Jacory Patterson, who has broken 44 seconds this season (43.85), and Busang Collen Kebinatshipi of Botswana (44.51).

The 19-year-old is leading Nigeria’s bid to return to the final of the event since 1995, when Sunday Bada finished eighth, and to the podium since 1987, when Innocent Egbunike won a silver medal.