CWG: Samuel Ogazi wins Nigeria’s first-ever men’s 400m gold

Samuel Ogazi has won Nigeria’s first-ever gold medal in the
men’s 400 meters at the Commonwealth Games (CWG).

 

The 20-year-old crossed the finish line with a gap of about
six meters between him and the chasing pack as he clocked 44.25 seconds to win
the event’s final at the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday.

Ogazi was just an infinitesimal 10 milliseconds shy of the
event’s Commonwealth Games record of 44.24 seconds set by Kirani James of
Grenada in 2014.

The closest a Nigerian had previously gone to winning the
CWG men’s 400m title was in 1994 when Sunday Bada won a bronze medal.

Ogazi came to Glasgow as the fastest in the world this year,
and the absence of Botswana’s Collen Kebinatshipi, the reigning world champion
in the event, further confirmed the Kaduna-born runner as the favourite for the
one-lap crown.

Drawn in lane five for the final, Ogazi refused to buckle as
Jereme Richards of Trinidad and Tobago, in an adjacent lane, matched him for
strides in the first 200m.

Ogazi timed his explosiveness well and fully pulled away
from his opponents in the final 150m. Richards took silver, and South Africa’s
Zakhiti Nene grabbed the bronze medal.

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