Ezekiel Nathaniel ran his second race at Budapest 2023 in his primary event, the 400m hurdles, after taking part in the mixed 4x400m relay on Day 1. Nathaniel was seeded in Heat 5 against USA’s CJ Allen who has gone under the magical 48s barrier.
Nathaniel ran a cleverly paced race as he found an extra gear to take one of the automatic qualifying spots, placing 4th with a Season’s Best of 48.47s, which is 0.05 short of his National Record (NR) of 48.42s set last year. That time was 8th fastest time of the entire heats.
Joshua Abuaku of Germany won the heat in a Personal Best of 48.32s followed closely by Allen (48.36ss) and Roshwan Clarke of Jamaica (48.39s).
Nathaniel is the first Nigerian athlete to qualify for the semifinals on Day 2 of the 2023 World Championships.
