L. MathekaOmanyala makes world athletics top ten after stellar 2022
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Reading Time: 3min | Mon. 02.01.23. | 13:09
The men’s 100m witnessed record depth in 2022, as 35 athletes ran 10 seconds or faster, improving on the previous best of 28 set in 2015 and equalled in 2021.
Commonwealth Games 100m champion Ferdinand Omanyala has ranked third in the world athletics season's top list thanks to his 9.85 win at last year’s Kip Keino Classic.
Despite not getting the chance to compete in the Diamond League, Omanyala had a busy season competing in the continental tours among other global events that have sen him ranked ninth in the world athletics rankings.
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Only world champion Fred Kerley, the man Omanyala beat in Nairobi during the Continental Tour event where he managed his best mark of the season, and Trayvon Bromell went faster than the Kenyan.
Kerley clocked 9.76 seconds during the U.S championships in Oregon while Bromell, the man who beat Omanyala during the 2021 Kip Keino Classic at Kasarani, clocked 9.81 in during the same U.S semis where Kerley ran his PB to place second.
Omanyala started the season with his first title, the African Championships gong where he clocked 9.93 to deny the then defending champions, South Africa's Akani Simbine.
There was alot of expectation for Omanyala as he made his debut at the World Championships but travel hitches saw him arrive in Oregon few hours to his first 100m race in the heats.
From Kenya's Ferdinand Omanyala placed third in the world, with an African record of 9.85 seconds, to Ivoary Coast's Marie-Josée Ta Lou with African Record (10.72), all played thier vital roles in the sport.
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Here is an analysis pic.twitter.com/JOxfJlsWG4
He scrapped through to the semis but jet-lag caught up with the Kenyan and he could not make the final where he would have gone up against Kerley, Bromell and Simbine among others.
In Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games, Omanyala went head to head with Simbine again, defeating the South African with a 10.02 performance.
The men’s 100m witnessed record depth in 2022, as 35 athletes ran 10 seconds or faster, improving on the previous best of 28 set in 2015 and equalled in 2021.
Kerley, previously a 400m specialist, won the world title and achieved the feat of dipping under 10 seconds for the 100m, 20 seconds for the 200m and 45 seconds for the 400m in the same season.
In total, he went sub-10.00 nine times, topped by the world-leading PB of 9.76 he clocked in the semifinals of the US Championships.
The 27-year-old Olympic silver medallist then ran 9.77 to win the US title, and clocked 9.79 in the heats at the World Championships.
Returning to the track for the world final, Kerley proved superior yet again, clocking 9.86 to lead a US sweep of the medals ahead of Marvin Bracy-Williams and Bromell, who both recorded 9.88.
Jamaica’s 21-year-old Oblique Seville finished fourth in 9.97, one place ahead of South Africa’s Simbini whose 10.01 run secured him a fifth consecutive top-five global championships finish.
Tied at third on that top list with 9.85 are Bracy-Williams, Omanyala and Jamaica’s Yohan Blake.
Additional Reporting by World Athletics.
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