Belgrade 2022:Omanyala on the run for first championship medal

Africa’s 100m record holder Ferdinand Omanyala headline Kenya's act on the second day of World Indoor Championships in Belgrade as he takes to the track to compete in the men's 60m dash. 

In his first major Indoor Championships, the sprint sensation heads to the race on the back of an outstanding indoor debut that saw him set a national record of 6.57 seconds three weeks ago to finish fourth at the Meeting Hauts-de- France Pas-de-Calais in Lievin, France. 

Omanyala is in heat two of seven at the preliminaries that gun off at 12.45 pm where he faces a tough test as he looks to finish in the top three for an automatic slot to the semis slated for later in the day. 

The Kenyan, alongside Poland’s Adrian Brzezinski  have run the fastest times this season in the heat at 6.57. However, Barbados' Mario Burke holds the fastest PB at 6.55 and has run 6.63 this season. 

The semis and final will be run in the evening session at 20.40 pm and 23.20 pm respectively with the Kenyan, who made it to the 100m semi final on his debut at the Olympics finishing fourth in his heat to miss out on a final slot, looking to go all the way. 

Christian Coleman, is looking to defend his title against tough opposition among the list Olympics 100m champion Marcell Jacobs. The US sprinter arrives in Serbia as the defending champion, world indoor 60m record-holder, 2022 world leader and reigning 100m world champion outdoors.

Jacobs showed in Tokyo seven months ago that he is capable of rising to a challenge, and snatching the hand of opportunity. And, should the Italian manage to do so again at global level, he would become the first reigning Olympic 100m champion to claim the world indoor 60m crown. (Maurice Greene and Justin Gatlin both struck world indoor gold the year before their Olympic successes).

In Coleman, however, the Olympic 100m champ faces a rival who has won his last 20 races at the distance, heats included.

Coleman won the 2018 world indoor title in Birmingham, England, in 6.37, a championship record. That season he set a world record 6.34 at altitude in Albuquerque and now sits jointly on top of the 2022 world list with the 6.45 that took him to the US title in Spokane last month. Bahamian Terrence Jones clocked 6.45 in Lubbock, Texas, in January but is not on the entry list for Belgrade.

Should Coleman prevail, he would be only the second back-to-back winner of the title. Canada’s Bruny Surin triumphed in Toronto in 1993 and in Barcelona in 1995.

Additional information by World Athletics