Omanyala headlines 3rd Athletics Kenya Relay Series

Speedster Ferdinand Omanyala will be the star attraction when sprinters converge at Nyayo stadium this Saturday for the 3rd leg of Athletics Kenya Relay Series.

Omanyala is the current talk in athletics circles after clocking the fastest 100m by any Kenyan. The 10.11 seconds race, however, remains merely in the lips and not in annals of history where it rightly belongs because conditions for the race did not meet international standards.

As a result of Athletics Kenya’s casual race organization, Omanyala’s ‘record’ cannot be ratified. Nonetheless, every eye will be watching to see if the University of Nairobi student can replicate the feat a second time.

The record books have Postal Corporation of Kenya sprinter Mark Otieno as the fastest Kenyan at 10.14 set in 2017. The previous holder was Mike Mokamba of Kenya Defense Forces who had stopped the clock at 10.23 a year earlier.

Kenya is preparing for a 5th consecutive appearance at the World Relays in Chorzow, Poland after making a mark in Nassau, Bahamas for the opening three editions and in Yokohama, Japan in 2019.

Originally intended as an annual event, the World relays was later decided to happen every odd year, the same as the World Championships in Athletics for which it serves as a qualification stage.

The competition format for the first edition included the 4 × 100 metres relay, the 4 × 200 metres relay, the 4 × 400 metres relay, the 4 × 800 metres relay and the 4 × 1500 metres relay The first edition had a $1.4 million prize fund.

From the second edition, the 4 × 1500 metres relay was replaced by the distance medley relay However, this was short-lived and was itself replaced by a mixed-gender 4 × 400 metres relay for the third edition. In 2019 the 2 × 2 × 400 m relay and the shuttle hurdles relay were added to the mixed-gender category