Omanyala to begin bid for second straight Diamond League 100m final appearance in Silesia
Reigning Commonwealth Games 100m champion and African record holder, Ferdinand Omanyala will begin the race to qualify for his second straight Diamond League final at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Silesia, Poland, the 12th leg of the 15-leg 2024 Wanda Diamond League series.
The Kenyan failed to make it to the final of the 100m at the Paris 2024 Olympics despite arriving at the Stade de France, venue of the track and field event, as the second fastest man in the world.
The 28-year-old who ran 9.79 to win the Kenyan Olympic trials in June could not break 10 seconds in Paris but has since bounced back to reckoning with a 9.95 run at the JOSKO Laufmeeting, in Pramtalstadion, Andorf, Austria.
He will take that form first to Silesia where he is one of the top-class sprinters confirmed for the race with 2016 Olympic champion, Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy and Jamaican, Kishane Thompson, silver medal winner behind Noah Lyles in Paris early this month as well as Fred Kerley who picked the bronze.
Omanyala will also be at the Golden Gala in Rome at the end of the month and will face all three again as well as Letsile Tebogo, the first African man to win an Olympic gold in the 200m.
The Kenyan is 11th in the 100m standing with the seven points he garnered when he placed second at the Prefontaine Classic in May.
He was in the final of the event last year in Oregon where he placed third (9.85) behind Christian Coleman (9.83) and Lyles (9.85).
