NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 20 – Ferdinand Omanyala squeezed into the final of the 100m at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary by the skin of his teeth after finishing third in his semi-final.
The African record holder’s time of 10.01 was the second fastest of the non-automatic qualifiers, and he managed to squeeze into the final, while defending champion Fred Kerley crashed out.
The American, clearly distraught with his performance, finished third in the final of three heats with a time of 10.02, missing out Sunday night’s final by a hundredth of a second.
Omanyala was lucky to go through the same stage he fell in last year in Oregon. He also finished third, but his time couldn’t rank as one of the best two from third place.
This is the first time ever that he has qualified for the final of the World Championships.
Olympic champion Marcel Jacobs also missed the final. He finished fifth in a time of 10.05.
American Noah Lyles won the heat in a a season’s best time of 9.87 ahead of Japanese Abdul Hakim Sani Brown who also recorded a sub-10 finish with a time of 9.97.
In the second semi-final, Chris Coleman timed 9.88 to win while Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain was second in 9.93. Jamaica’s Ryiem Forde was third in a personal best time of 9.95, which ranked as one of the two fastest non-automatic qualifiers.
