World Championships: Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala clocks 10.10 Seconds, qualifies for 100m Semis

Despite a late arrival in Oregon, Eugene, USA and a jet lag to boot, Kenyan sprinter Ferdinand Omanyala put his best foot forward in the 100m heats, clocking 10.10 seconds in heat 7 to qualify for the semi finals.

The heat was won by Japanese Abdul Hakim Sani Brown who clocked 9.98 seconds while Edward Ose-Nketia was second in 10.08.

Omanyala, like many athletes around the world, experienced visa hitches in the run-up to the championship, leaving Nairobi on Thursday aboard a Qatar airlines flight at 6pm en route to  Doha, from where he took another connecting flight to the US.

But on Saturday morning, lining up in heat seven, at the Hayward Field Stadium, Omanyala showed no signs of fatigue, taking on his opponents in an epic battle at the 25,000 seater facility and will relish a further contest in the semis, from where he’ll hope to clock a much better time to take him to the final, where a podium place would earn him a cherished world medal.

Omanyala has had a fairytale season, not only claiming the record of Africa’s fastest man, but also winning top honours at the World Continental Tour at Kasarani, the KipKeino Classic, but also reigning supreme at the Africa Championships.

Meanwhile American sprinter Christian Coleman won Heat 6 clocking 10.08 as Canadian Andre De Grasse came second after timing 10.18seconds.