There was no other befitting way for Ezekiel Nathaniel to close the curtains on his remarkable collegiate career as a Baylor Bear than winning his first-ever NCAA title with the 3rd fastest time in collegiate history after four appearances.
Nathaniel started the season running the 400m flat indoors, where he broke the National Record held by the late Sunday Bada and the African Record owned by Uganda’s Eugene Omalla twice. His 44.74s ranked him as the 8th fastest of all time and gave us a glimpse of what to expect in the outdoor season over his primary event—the 400m hurdles.
The Nigerian opened his outdoor campaign with an easy 48.99s in the 400m hurdles and returned back to the 400m flat the following weeks where he earned a sub-45s performance of 44.75s.
Fast forward to the Big 12 conference meet, Nathaniel lined up for the 400mH where he didn’t just dominate but made history. He became the first Nigerian to go sub-48s, and he didn’t do that once but TWICE. He clocked 47.90s and 47.89s in the heats and final respectively, bettering his National Record (NR) and Personal Best (PB) in the process.
Nathaniel entered the NCAA Nationals as the collegiate leader and heavy favourite. In the semis, he chopped off a few seconds from his initial PB to lead the field by a huge margin in 47.86s as his closest rival didn’t break 48s.
Over the years, Nathaniel has always had near misses when it comes to events he is favoured to win, so the question going through everyone’s mind was if he had the mental fortitude to finally win his first NCAA title.
The hurdler silenced all doubts this time around, storming away from the pack to win the title in a massive PB and NR of 47.49s, which happens to be the 3rd fastest time ever recorded by a collegiate athlete. The time also made him the 2nd fastest 400m hurdler in 2025 behind Karsten Warholm (47.28s).
In addition, Nathaniel is now ranked 3rd on the African all-time list behind Samuel Matete (47.10s) and Amadou Dia Bâ (47.23s). His 47.49s also places him at Number 26 on the global all-time list.
