NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 03 – National 100m record holder Ferdinand Omanyala will continue a hugely successful season with a first ever appearance at the World Athletics Diamond League when he lines up at the Brussels leg on Friday evening.
Omanyala has had a splendid breakout season which started off at the Olympics, where he broke the Kenyan record after running 10.01secs in the semi-finals and finished third in his heat but failed to make the final.
He however became the first ever Kenyan to run a sub-10seconds 100m when he clocked 9.96secs in the preliminaries and then 9.86 in the final at the Josko Lauf Meeting in Austria on August 15.
And now, he will become the first Kenyan to ever compete at the Diamond League with a lane in Brussels on Friday.
“I am too excited to be in the Diamond League because this is a big dream. It is massive to me also because I am the first Kenyan to ever line up in the 100m at the Diamond League and this is a great feeling,” Omanyala told Capital Sport from Brussels.
He added; “Ever since I started athletics, my dream has always been to compete at the Diamond League and knowing that I have a lane in Brussels is a huge thing for me. This is a boost in my career and definitely a push to do better.”
Omanyala will line up alongside Olympic silver medalist Fred Kerley from the USA, South African Akani Simbine who was fourth in the Tokyo finals as well as the American duo of Trayvon Bromell and Michael Norman.