Ezekiel Nathaniel has become the first Nigerian to reach the final of the men’s 400 metres hurdles event at the World Athletics Championships since 1987 after winning his semi-final matchup at the ongoing tournament in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The athlete clocked a time of 47.47 seconds in the second semifinal of the event to beat Qatar’s Ismail Abakar and Caleb Dean, who crossed the finish line at 47.61 and 47.85 seconds, respectively, to book his place in the final.

Subsequently, he became the first Nigerian to reach the men’s 400 metres hurdles event at the World Championships since Henry Amike achieved the feat almost four decades ago. 

Nathaniel will hope to secure Nigeria’s second medal at the championships when he faces medal favourites Norway’s Karsten Warholm, United States’ Rai Benjamin and Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos in the final on Friday.

Emil Agyekum of Germany, Caleb Dean from the United States and the Qatari duo of Abderrahman Samba and Abakar are the four other athletes in the lineup.

Meanwhile, Udodi Chudi Onwuzurike is also through to the semifinals of the men’s 200 metres event after he finished second with a time of 20.27 seconds in the third heat behind Kenneth Bednarek (19.98 seconds) from the United States.

Tobi Amusan won Nigeria’s first medal at the ongoing championships on Monday after clocking a time of 12.29 seconds to clinch silver in the women’s 100 metres hurdles event.