Nairobi — African 100m record holder Ferdinand Omanyala will head to the FBK Games in Hengelo, a World Athletics Continental Gold Tour meet in the Netherlands on Sunday, for his final competition before switching energy and focus to the Olympic Games in Paris.
Omanyala has told Capital Sport that this sojourn in the Netherlands will be crucial in chiselling out his final program for Paris, where he hopes to knock on the door of history by doing better than Tokyo 2020 when he reached the semis.
“Hengelo for us will be like a time trial so I will go there and push hard so that I know where we are before we head to the pre-Olympic camp in Miramas. It will be like a designer for our program heading to the Olympics,” Omanyala said.
He added; “It will help us to know where we are, what to work on, our strengths and weaknesses and this will be very important for our preparation for the Olympic Games.”
Omanyala’s sixth race of the season
Hengelo will be Omanyala’s sixth race of the season, and the 26-year old says the fact that he has limited himself to fewer races this campaign means that he has more in the gas.
His coach Geoffrey Kimani believes that he is at a better space currently, and they have done much of the work already this season. He says, going into Hengelo will be like a map towards Paris.
“Hengelo will give us a clear indication of where we are and that informs the training program going into Miramas. We have done much up to now and that makes the work easier going into the final round of preparation. We are getting there,” noted Kimani.
Omanyala currently has the second fastest time this year, having run a hitherto world lead of 9.79 at the Team Kenya Olympic Trials at the Nyayo National Stadium three weeks ago.
Running 9.79 a shock
Jamaican Kishane Thompson currently has the world leading time of 9.77, o.02 faster than Omanyala, clocked at the Jamaican Olympic trials in Kingston last Friday.
“Running 9.79 was a shock to me because we didn’t expect that too early. But it also means that I have a lot of speed in the tank. I didn’t want to run that fast in Kenya; I wanted to do it outside. But it is number two in the world now and we take it,” Omanyala says.
He adds; “It gives me more confidence moving forward because it is the fastest I have run since 2021 and it means we are on course.”
Omanyala’s biggest ambition remains winning an Olympic medal, and he says he feels his body is peaking at the right time and will be in line to battle for a podium finish in the streets of Paris.