Ogazi and Onojuvwevwo Advance Directly to 400m Semifinals in Glasgow

Reigning NCAA 400m indoor and outdoor champion Samuel Ogazi and African 400m indoor record holder Ella Onojuvwevwo will begin their Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games campaigns from the semifinal stage after receiving byes into the next round.

Ogazi, the 2026 world leader with a time of 43.38 seconds, and Onojuvwevwo, who holds the African indoor record, are among the seeded athletes who will join the competition at the semifinal stage as the first round of the men’s and women’s 400m events takes place at Scotstoun Stadium on Tuesday.

Nigeria will also have three athletes competing in the opening round as they seek places in the semifinals.

Esther Elo Joseph will compete in the women’s 400m first round at 10:46 a.m. She has a personal and season’s best of 50.97 seconds and has been drawn in lane two of Heat 1, alongside Jamaica’s Shana Kaye Anderson and Botswana’s Obakeng Kamberuka, who also own 50.97-second personal bests.

Joseph will need to finish strongly in a competitive heat as the 18 fastest athletes across the opening round will qualify for the semifinals.

Okon George will also be in action for Nigeria in the women’s 400m first round as the country seeks to advance another athlete to the next stage of the competition.

In the men’s event, Edidiong Okon Udo will compete in the first round and has been drawn in Heat 1. He will face athletes from Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana and the Turks and Caicos Islands.