NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 1 – Ferdinand Omanyala has stormed into the semi-finals of the 60m dash at the World Indoor Championships after winning his heat in Glasgow on Friday evening.
The African 100m record holder clocked 6.52 to beat Japanese Shuhei Tada who finished behind him, with a microsecond difference.
Omanyala seems to have tidied up his speed off the blocks as he bounced off to a good gap, though the Japanese threatened to catch up with him at the tail end.
His time of 6.52 equals his second fastest time ever, having run the same time in his first Indoor meet of the season in Miramas three weeks ago. His national record and personal best time is 6:51, set in Paris a week after the run in Miramas.
The semis are scheduled for Friday evening, at 10:45pm.
Meanwhile, only Vivian Chebet qualified to the semis in the 800m after finishing in a non-automatic qualifying slot while Collins Kipruto, Noah Kibet and Naomi Korir all missed out.
All the four Kenyans finished outside the automatic two qualification slots and had to wait through the ‘q-room’ to see if they could squeeze into the non-automatic slots and only Vivian managed.
She finished third in her heat in a new personal best time of 2:00.86 in a heat won by Ethiopia’s Habitam Alemu while Jamaica’s Nayoya Goule was second. Korir was meanwhile fourth in her heat in 2:03.31.
In the men’s race, Kipruto clocked 1:46.89 to finish third and looked all set to move into the semis on a small q, but the last heat was faster, eliminating him from the list.
Kibet was also third in his heat, clocking 1:46.90.
