Nigeria’s National Record holder in the 400-meter hurdle, Ezekiel Nathaniel, has qualified for the Semi Final of the event going on in Paris.
Making his first appearance in the Paris 2024 Olympics, Nathaniel left no one in doubt of his intention as he executed his plan very well to secure automatic qualification into the Semi-Final.
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The National Record holder scaled all his Hurdles and finished 2nd in heat 4 in a time of 48.32s.
He finished behind Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke and won the race in 48.17s, and Wilfried Happio took the last automatic spot in 48.42s.
His qualification means Nigeria will be having an athlete in the semi-final event for the first time in 12 years after Amaechi Morton achieved the same feat at London 2012.
He also became just the third Nigerian in history to run in the Semis of the event, following the track of Henry Amike who made it in 1984 and Amaechi Morton in 2012
Nathaniel will be looking forward to achieving Henry Amike’s feat of qualifying for the finals at the Los Angeles 1984 edition, the only and last time a Nigerian ran in the final of the 400-meter hurdles spanning 30 years of absence.
