In a country, Kenya, where long-distance running is a religion, Ferdinand Omanyala is an apostate by choosing sprinting. But he has established himself as the fastest man on the African continent and in Paris, he will be racing to offer his country a historic medal in the Olympics’ premier event, the 100m.
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” A joke! » ((« A joke ! “). It is Ferdinand Omanyala himself who says it. Kenyacountry of long distance runnerssprinters were seen as ” funny » : « Before, sprinters went to international competitions and were eliminated in the heats. Before, sprinters were seen as a joke. »
But that was before. Before Ferdinand Omanyala, a 1.75m, 82kg ball of muscle, showed that in Kenya, you can run fast, very fast. The Nairobi native has made the straight line his specialty, in a country where athletics has always rhymed with long races.
In Kenyan Olympic history, of the 113 medals won before the JO 2024 from Paris, only four concern the sprint. And again… Four medals on the longest distance of the sprint, the 400m; silver in 1968 with the 4x400m relay, which will also win gold in 1972 in Munich, and the two bronzes of Julius Sang (1972), and Samson Kitur (1992).
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Suffice to say that with Ferdinand Omanyala, 100m specialist, the revolution is underway, and it is very fast. And the sprinter is far from being a flash in the pan. The one who started with rugby 7s holds the African record in the 100m (9”77) and achieved the second best world performance of the year 2024 (9”79), behind the Jamaican Kishane Thompson (9”77).
In Kenya, Ferdinand Omanyala now sees himself on a mission: to put sprinting at the heart of athletics. In a country of long-distance and middle-distance, it is a challenge to succeed as a sprinter. ” he confided to the newspaper The world in 2022. Even the federation at one point didn’t believe there could be a sprinter in Kenya. You have to overcome obstacles to break through. I think I have paved the way for many others who will come after me.he believes. One of the things I want to do is leave a legacy. I want to leave behind a sprinting industry in Kenya.. »
In the meantime, he is expected in Paris where he has the means to do better than a semi-final in the 100m. With the Botswanan Letsile TebogoFerdinand Omanyala thus carries the hopes of seeing Africa on the podium of the main event of the Olympic Games, 28 years after the Namibian’s silver medal Frankie Fredericks.
To consultJO 2024 program and calendar