Ezekiel Nathaniel Becomes Nigeria’s First 400mH Finalist in 38 Years

22-year-old Ezekiel Nathaniel has etched his name into Nigeria’s athletics history, becoming the country’s first 400m hurdles finalist at the 2025 Tokyo World Championships since 1987.

Nathaniel, Nigeria’s national record holder, produced a stunning performance in the semifinals of the Tokyo 2025 World Championships, clocking an impressive 47.47 seconds, the fastest time across all three heats.

Running in semifinal two, the NCAA champion delivered a perfectly executed race, storming past Qatar’s Ismail Abakar, who set a personal best of 47.61s, while Caleb Dean finished third in 47.85s. All three athletes qualified for the highly anticipated final.

Nathaniel’s time sent a clear message to the field, placing him among the medal favourites heading into the final. In the other heats, world record holder Karsten Warholm finished second behind Qatar’s Abdulrahman Samba (47.63s), while American Rai Benjamin won the third semifinal in 47.95s.

This feat marks Nigeria’s first appearance in the men’s 400m hurdles final since Henry Amike’s sixth-place finish at the 1987 World Championships in Rome.

Nathaniel, who has already had a long and successful collegiate season, is aiming to go one step further, to become the first Nigerian and only the fifth African to win a medal in the event at the World Championships.

To achieve this, the young hurdler may need to break his own Nigerian record of 47.31s and potentially challenge Samuel Matete’s long-standing African record of 47.10s. Matete, Zambia’s legendary hurdler, remains Africa’s only gold medalist in the event, having claimed top honours in 1991.

Nigeria now looks to Nathaniel to end nearly four decades of waiting for a medal in the men’s 400m hurdles, and possibly deliver one of the country’s biggest moments in athletics history.

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