NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 3 – Africa’s fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala, says he feels healthier, stronger and hungrier compared to last season, as he prepares for his second appearance at the Olympic Games in Paris, from Saturday.
Omanyala says he picked very many painful lessons from his run up last season, and he believes the adjustments he has made will take him closer to the doors of history.
“I don’t want to promise a lot,” Omanyala told Capital Sport.
He adds; “I have been promising a lot previously only to end up disappointing maybe because I have not prepared well, I get there tensed or your coach is too excited. This year I am putting my cards close to my chest but I am sure I have prepared well.”
As compared to last season where he would speak big and promise big, with many races lined up in his schedule, this year, Omanyala has been different.
He has run fewer races, and the Olympics will be the seventh of his season, and he has also not been talking more on his socials or mainstream media.
“I am feeling great this tear. I have had zero issues with my body and I am happy with how I am feeling. At this point last year, I had done 18 races and now heading to the Olympics, that will be like my seventh race this season. I am hungrier and I am looking forward to running good. At my seventh last year, I was already running 9.7s so I am looking forward to this,” further added Omanyala.
At his Olympics debut in Tokyo 2020, Omanyala reached the semi-finals. This year, he has been clear that he ‘wants to do better’ and better definitely means getting to the final.
“Big things are coming at the Olympics. When I am working, I want to do better and I want to run faster than 9.79,” he further said.
Omanyala gets into the purple track at the Stade de France, carrying the second fastest time in the world this year, with a 9.79 run during the Team Kenya trials for the Games in Nairobi. He feels he has vastly improved over time, and will definitely do well in Paris.
“In the last two races, I have had a good surge in my last 50, something that I have been known for. For the past like two seasons, it was lost because I had put on a bit of weight and it made me difficult to maintain that pace,” Omanyala explains.
He adds; “Now I am feeling that it’s coming back and with that, then add on a good start, I believe I will be lethal.”
