Omanyala set to battle world beaters Jacobs, Lyles in Paris Diamond League

Reigning Commonwealth champion Ferdinand Omanyala is set to come up against an elite field once again when he lines up for the fourth leg of the 2023 Wanda Diamond League set to take place in Paris, France on Friday 9 June 2023.

After making his second and third Diamond League appearances in Rabat, Morocco and Florence, Italy where he finished in third and second respectively over the last two weeks, the African 100m record holder has been scheduled to face Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs and double 200m world champion Noah Lyles in the City of Love.

In Rabat, the 27-year-old African champion finished behind Fred Kerley and South Africa’s Akani Simbine in his third-place finish before moving a place up in Florence where he lost to Kerley once again.

While another battle was expected between Omanyala and Kerley in Paris for the third leg in a row, that may not be the case as the official start list in Paris does not include the reigning 100m World champion’s name.

Instead, another battle awaits as Jacobs and Lyles will go head to head over 100m for the very first time having never met on the track.

The two men have personal bests of 9.80 and 9.86 respectively in the 100m, and both of them may have half an eye on Usain Bolt's meeting record of 9.79 when they take to the blocks in Paris.

Doubts however cloud Jacobs’ appearance in Paris after the Italian missed the Rabat and Florence legs due to a back injury.

Back in February 2023, Omanyala pulled off a stunning upset at the Meeting Lievin Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais when he defeated world indoor 60m champion Jacobs in the 60m final.

Ferdinand Omanyala: The stone that was once rejected but is now Kenya’s athletic cornerstone

The Kenyan sprinting ace set a new Kenyan record with a time of 6.54 seconds, beating his previous national record by 0.1secs as Jacobs clocked 6.57s.

The trio will be joined on track by Jamaica's Yohan Blake and Botswana's fast rising sensation Letsile Tebogo. Ronnie Baker from the USA, Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati and France’s Mouhamadou Fall will complete the eight-man field.