Quartermiler, Bamidele Emmanuel ran his first-ever sub 45 seconds (44.78 seconds) race over the full lap event Tuesday at the XXXIII Meeting Citta’ Di Padova in Italy to become the seventh Nigerian man to run inside 45 seconds, Completesports.com reports.
Bamidele, seeking a change of allegiance from Nigeria to Qatar set a new meeting record at the meeting and moved to number four on the Nigerian all-time list behind record holder, Innocent Egbunnike whose 44.17 seconds run at the Weltklasse in Zurich in 1987 is still unbeaten, policeman Sunday Bada (44.63 seconds) and Clement Chukwu who ran 44.65 seconds in 1998 to win the 400m title at the African Championships in Dakar, Senegal.
Bamidele, who began the season with a 46.10 seconds run at the AGN League in Pretoria, South Africa in January served notice of his historic run last week at the Meeting International Sport Solidarieta,in Lignano Sabbiadoro, near Udinese in Italy where he ran 45.39 seconds to place third.
With his huge performance in Padua, Nigerian officials will be seeking to convince the 20-year-old to reconsider his plan to dump Nigeria for oil-rich Qatar.
By Dare Esan
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