Samuel Ogazi has shattered a long-standing Nigerian benchmark in the 400 metres, producing a time of 43.95 seconds at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Auburn, Alabama, on May 16. The performance stands as the second quickest mark worldwide this year, coming as Nigeria’s sprint and sprint-relay contingent looks to hit top form ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July.
Ogazi’s run erased the 44.17-second standard previously set by Innocent Egbunike back in 1987—an enduring figure in Nigerian athletics—and it also signalled that the 20-year-old is now firmly in the conversation for medals on the global circuit.
The Auburn outing capped an outstanding stretch for the NCAA-based sprinter. Before that, he had already improved his personal best indoors, clocking 44.85 seconds, then went on to run 44.57 at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on March 14. He also captured the SEC Indoor title with a facility-record 44.72.
Tobi Amusan, the world record holder, has shown a similarly forceful trajectory in her lead-in to major events. She has posted three steadily quicker results in recent weeks: 12.83 seconds at the CAA Senior Athletics Championships, 12.41 at the Shanghai Diamond League, and a season-best 12.28 in Xiamen—an upward trend that suggests she is targeting a big showing in Scotland.
AFN second vice president Akuchukwu Aghazu said both athletes are peaking at exactly the right time.
“Every race has shown a more settled and more powerful Amusan,” Aghazu said. “She has run 12.12 and 12.06 with the wind’s help, and she has the ability to go even lower than the world record again.”
On Ogazi, Aghazu was just as confident. “At only 20 years old, his progress has moved beyond being simply encouraging—it is now becoming very difficult to overlook.”
The Commonwealth Games begin in Glasgow in July.
