My body didn’t fire well – Omanyala says after Worlds defeat

• Omanyala finished seventh in the final
• He had progressed to the semis as one of the best two third placed finishers
• American Noah Lyles won the crown

 African record holder Ferdinand Omanyala said his body just refused to fire, as he finished seventh in the 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Omanyala had hoped to become the first ever Kenyan to win a sprints medal at the Worlds, but he could not pose a positive response in a final won by American Noah Lyles.

“From the semis, my body just refused to fire. I will need to sit down and analyze to know what exactly went wrong,” Omanyala said after the race.

“I am glad I made it to the final, but today my body was just different I don’t know what happened, because I wasn’t running like I did yesterday during the heats, I knew today will be easy, I don’t know what happened, ,” he explained further.

Omanyala clocked an unusual slow time of 10.07 to finish seventh. He had managed to come off the semis as one of the two non-automatic qualifiers, having finished third in a time of 10.01.

He had to nervously sit through all the three semis to wait for his fate in the Q room and his time sailed him through ahead of erstwhile defending champion Fred Kerley who clocked 10.02 in finishing third in his semi.

Tough moment 

Ferdinand Omanyala embraces Letsile Tebogo. PHOTO/NOCK

“It was a tough moment for me, because of anxiety asking myself so many questions, but we thank God we made it to the finals,” Omanyala said.

In the final, American Noah Lyles was crowned champion after cruising through in a time of 9.83 while Botswana youngster Letsile Tebogo was second for silver in a time of 9.88 as Briton Zharnel Hughes, erstwhile world leader, settled for bronze in 9.98.

Tebogo became the first African ever to have won a medal in the 100m, and he said although he was delighted, he would have loved either Omanyala or South African Akani Simbine to achieve the feat before him as they had put in a lot of work. Simbine disappointingly was disqualified after a false start in the semis.

“Becoming the first man to medal at the World Championships shows that Africa has a lot of potential looking the likes of Ferdinand and Akani. For me I wanted them to have this medal before me but by the grace of God I got it first so that I can come up knowing I have two African brothers who have motivated me,” Tebogo, who won the World U20 title in Nairobi in 2021 stated.

Looking forward to the end of the season 

Ferdinand Omanyala cruises to victory at the Kip Keino Classic

Omanyala is now looking ahead, with the wrap of the Diamond League season, where he is the current leader coming up, while he is also plotting for the Olympic Games next year in Paris.

“It was very hard for me, we learn and move on; we can’t reverse time, it has gone it is gone. It was a good season and we thank God for that, we have finished the final without injury so we appreciate,” he further said.