Baylor University’s standout athlete, Nathaniel Ezekiel, has retained his place on the Bowerman Watch List, maintaining his status among collegiate track and field’s elite. The 21-year-old Nigerian has now appeared on the prestigious list for six consecutive updates.
Ezekiel, who specialises in the 400m and 400m hurdles, has continued to impress this season. He is set to compete in the 400m hurdles at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships, building on his remarkable performances at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in May.
At that meet, Ezekiel delivered two of the fastest times in collegiate history—47.90 seconds in the preliminaries and a personal record of 47.89 seconds in the final—earning him the seventh-fastest mark ever recorded in the event at the collegiate level.
Organisers highlighted his dominant outdoor season, noting that Ezekiel remains unbeaten in the finals of both the 400m and 400m hurdles. During the indoor season, he narrowly missed gold in the 400m at the NCAA Indoor Championships, finishing second by just 0.01 seconds.
Semifinalists for the 2024 Bowerman Award will be announced later this month—on June 25 for women and June 26 for men—while the list of finalists is expected the week of June 30.
Meanwhile, fellow Nigerians Temitope Ajayi and Samuel Ogazi also received votes from the Bowerman selection panel, placing them on the award’s wider radar even though they are not yet part of the official Watch List.
