Africa’s fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya, faces the toughest race of his life in men’s 100 metres at the 2024 Olympic Games.
At 28, Omanyala will make only his second appearance at the Olympic Games this year, and is under pressure to rise to the ocassion on the big stage against younger competitors, some of whom have won world titles.
He competed in the quadrennial multi-sports event that is often regarded the world’s foremost sports competition for the first time in the 2020 edition in Tokyo, which was held in 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Omanyala, who holds the African record of 9.77 seconds from the 2021 Kip Keino Classic held in Nairobi on September 18, 2021, also holds the Commonwealth Games title, having timed 10.02 to win in Birmingham on August 3, 2022.
Omanyala’s African record of 9.77sec makes him the ninth fastest athlete over 100m of all time. But he holds the second fastest time over the distance this season with a personal best of 9.79sec, which he registered during the Kenyan trials at Nyayo National Stadium on June 15.
In Tokyo, Omanyala ran a time of 10.01 seconds in the fifth heat of men’s 100m to qualify for the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, he timed 10.00 to finish ninth, missing out of the final by a fraction of a second.
He first competed in the World Athletics Championships in 2022 in Oregon, where he ran 10.14 to bow out at the semi-final stage. At the next championship held a year later in Budapest, Omanyala went one place better and reached the final of the 100m race, finishing seventh in 10.07sec.
He reckons he will thrive in the pressure that comes with competing at the Olympics for the second time.
“Most of the time, focus (on the championship) supersedes all that pressure from outside because the only thing you think about is the competition that awaits you. Of course, pressure will always be there, but it shouldn’t get into somebody,” Omanyala told Nation Sport yesterday from Miramas in southern France where he is attending high performance pre-Olympics training camp with the rest of Team Kenya athletes. Kenyan sprinters, sevens rugby team, and women’s volleyball team players have been in Miramas for the last two weeks.
In Paris, Omanyala will come up against reigning world champion Noah Lyles from USA who is 27, reigning Olympics 100m champion Marcel Jacobs from Italy who is 29, and 2022 world champion Fred Kerly who is 29. All these athletes have posted impressive times this season.
Also in the mix is Botswana’s new kid on the block, Letsile Tebogo, who comes into the event with a silver medal from 2022 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, and former African champion Simbine Akane from South Africa who claimed bronze medal in Budapest last year.
There is also Jamaica’s Thompson Kishane who is currently the fastest man this season (9.77). Add Kishane’s compatriot Seville Oblique to the list, and you have an explosive field for Paris Olympics.
He said training in hot and warm conditions under his coach Geoffrey Kimani has helped smoothen his muscle tone ahead of the big assignment. Early this year, he dropped his ambition of competing in both the 200m and 100m citing shorter preparation time.
Kimani took over from Duncan Ayiemba as Omanyala’s coach. Ayiemba had coached Omanyala since the 2015/2016 season.
The Paris Olympics, which open on Friday, will feature a new sport in breaking, plus three young sports returning from the Tokyo Games -- climbing, skateboarding and surfing.
Preliminary round and first round races in the men’s 100m will be held on August 3 in Paris, followed by the semi-finals and the final a day later.
