Omanyala to face studded field in Xiamen this weekend

Africa’s fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala, will open his Diamond League hunt this weekend when he lines up for the season-opening Xiamen leg on Saturday, 26 April, at the Egret Stadium.

Omanyala, 29, will come into the 100m race looking to improve on his second-place finish at the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix, which was his last event on Saturday, 12 April.

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Standing in his way will be a studded lineup, which will be headlined by Olympic 200m gold medalist Letsile Tebogo and South Africa’s Akani Simbine, who currently has the second-fastest time in the distance this year.

Simbine, a world indoor 60m bronze medalist, has already beaten Omanyala this year - at the aforementioned Botswana Grand Prix - while Tebogo only ran his first 100m last weekend at the Potch Invitational Meet in South Africa.

Other top contenders in the race scheduled for 1501 EAT will include Great Britain’s Jeremiah Azu and Lachlan Kennedy, who were the top two finishers in the world indoor 60m finals earlier this year.

For Omanyala, the Diamond League race will be his first outside Africa and the second in his race schedule for the opening part of the season.

The Commonwealth Games gold medalist began his season with an unofficial semifinal victory at the second leg of the Athletics Kenya (AK) track and field meeting in Thika in February before competing in two ASA Grand Prix races in South Africa.

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A trip to Uganda for their National Trials followed thereafter in late March, where he competed in the 100m and 4x100m.

Other Kenyans who will also compete in Xiamen include Faith Kipyegon, Beatrice Chebet, Abraham Kibiwot, Wilberforce Kones, Edmund Serem, Simon Koech, and Caroline Nyaga.