{"id":2411,"date":"2023-08-18T19:19:13","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T19:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/world-athletics-championships-2023-100m-star-omanyala-targets-100m-glory-for-africa\/"},"modified":"2023-08-18T19:19:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T19:19:13","slug":"world-athletics-championships-2023-100m-star-omanyala-targets-100m-glory-for-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/world-athletics-championships-2023-100m-star-omanyala-targets-100m-glory-for-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"World Athletics Championships 2023: 100m star Omanyala targets 100m glory for Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Ferdinand Omanyala was the first Kenyan to win a 100m Diamond League meeting with victory in Monaco last month<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Commonwealth Games champion Ferdinand Omanyala has compared the “aggression” of a 100m race to boxing as he targets gold at this month’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The Kenyan will line up in the Hungarian capital on the back of his first Diamond League win in July. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Omanyala, 27, <\/span>claimed the victory in Monaco ahead<\/span><\/a> of Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, the junior 100m world record holder, with Jamaicans Ackeem Blake and Yohan Blake third and fourth respectively. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now the East African says he’s ready to land a punch on the global stage in a discipline he says captures the biggest track and field interest due to its similarity to boxing. <\/span><\/p>\n

“The 100 metres is most popular because of its hype – I consider it like a boxing match,” he told BBC Sport Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

“In a boxing match, there’s a lot of hype around it, there’s a lot of media and (the 100m race) is like nine seconds of aggression.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The concentration of a human being is 45 seconds. So for nine seconds, you understand that people pay a lot of attention, and it’s most interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

“For 100m athletes, I can say they’re very hyper – hyperactive – so that’s why we make the sport interesting.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Africa ready to rise<\/h3>\n

As Africa’s fastest man, having run 9.77 seconds in 2021, Omanyala claimed gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham when running 10.02secs.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the back of the <\/span>second-fastest 100m time this year<\/span>external-link<\/title><\/svg><\/span><\/a> – 9.84secs in his home city of Nairobi in May’s Kip Keino Classic – Omanyala is now targeting a first 100m podium finish at the World Championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

The continent has won medals in the men’s 200m (via Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks, then Nigerian Francis Obikwelu and South Africans Anaso Jobodwana and Wayde van Niekerk) and in the women’s 100m (Ivorian duo Murielle Ahoure and Marie-Josee Ta Lou) but not in the men’s blue riband event. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Africa has never medalled in this race and that’s something I want to break. I want to change that, so I want to win a medal – I want to win the gold,” Omanyala continued. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Going in as one of the top sprinters, people are looking at and counting on you – people are counting you in that medal bracket. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m going for nothing less than a gold.” <\/span><\/p>\n