Nigerian teenager Samuel Ogazi has been placed in Lane 3 ahead of the men’s 400m final in the Paris 2024 Olympics scheduled for Wednesday, August 7.
The 18-year-old on Tuesday became the first Nigerian in 36 years to reach the event’s final since Innocent Egbunike at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games.
Ogazi finished third in his semifinal, clocking a personal best (PB) time of 44.41 seconds, in a performance that was one for the record books.
The Nigerian in his first Olympics will be up against some of the biggest quarter-milers in the world, with Grenada’s Kirani James, who ran the fastest time in the semifinals and is in search of a fourth Olympic medal, one of the favourites.
Kirani, who will start the final in Lane 5, could become the first man to claim medals across four straight Olympics in the 400m.
Others in the final include: Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, drawn in Lane 6; the American trio of Michael Norman (Lane 4), Quincy Hall (Lane 8), and Christopher Bailey (Lane 2); Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards (Lane 9); and Zambian national record holder Muzala Samukonga (Lane 7).
Ogazi will have the chance to further etch his name in Nigerian and Olympic history when Wednesday’s final gets underway at Stade de France at 9:20 p.m. local time (8:20 p.m. Nigerian time).
FULL LIST OF MEN’S 400M FINALISTS & THEIR LANES
Lane 2. Christopher Bailey – United States
Lane 3. Samuel Ogazi – Nigeria
Lane 4. Michael Norman – United States
Lane 5. Kirani James – Grenada
Lane 6. Matthew Hudson-Smith – Great Britain
Lane 7. Muzala Samukonga – Zambia
Lane 8. Quincy Hall – United States
Lane 9. Jereem Richards – Trinidad and Tobago
