Omanyala to face Tebogo after a year in star-studded Rome Diamond League lineup

Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala will renew his track rivalry with 200m Olympic gold medalist Lestile Tebogo in a star-studded Rome Diamond League lineup.

This will be the first showdown between the African sprint kings for almost a year with their last meeting in the 100m being the Prefontaine Classic back in September 2023.

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The Rome Diamond League 100m race will also be the first for Tebogo in the distance since finishing sixth at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Interestingly in their recent head-to-head battles, Omanyala has only finished behind Tebogo once, in the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Since the disappointing Paris Olympics, Omanyala has been in sensational form, claiming the Josko Laufmeeting Andorf 100m title in Austria and finishing second at the Silesia Diamond League meet.

The A-listers confirmed for the Rome Diamond League meet include the world’s fastest man this year and Olympic silver medalist Kishane Thompson, and former Olympic gold medalist Lamont Marcell Jacobs.

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Also in the race is Olympic bronze medalist Fred Kerly who is the only man to beat Omanyala post-Olympics and former World champion Christian Coleman.

Others include 22-year-old Jamaican Ackeem Blake, Hakim Sani Brown, and former European champion Jeremiah Azu.

The Rome meet which is the third last Diamond League is slated for Friday 30 August.