Ghana’s athletics history was rewritten on Saturday after Joseph Taylor, a freshman at Duke University, shattered the long-standing men’s 400m national record at the 2025 ACC Outdoor Championships in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Taylor clocked 44.98s to win the race, eclipsing the previous national record of 45.13s set by Ibrahim Hassan in 1996. The 19-year-old becomes the first Ghanaian athlete ever to dip under 45s mark in the quarter-mile event.

The record-breaking run, which took place at the George C. Griffin Track, was confirmed in the official meet results published by Flash Results here.

Taylor’s time meets the qualifying standard for the upcoming World Athletics Championships, further boosting his credentials as one of Ghana’s rising athletic prospects.