Best time of the season in China
In Africa there is only one king of the 100m and his name is Ferdinand Omanyala. After a complicated 2025 season, the Kenyan sprinter has made an impressive start to the campaign with five races all completed in less than 10 seconds.
On Saturday, Omanyala was at its fifth outing of the season during the Xiamen Meeting in China, the second in the Diamond League after the Shanghai Meeting. Against the world’s best sprinters, the 30-year-old athlete has won with a time of 9.94 seconds, the "Season Best" so far.
Omanyala finished ahead of the South African, Gift Leotlela (10.00) who had won before him a little over a week ago at the Shanghai Meeting. The American Trayvon Bomell (10.03) completed the podium. This season, no other athlete has done better than Ferdinand Omanyala’s time in the 100m.
Not even the Olympic champion Letslie Tebogo who completely missed out in Xiamen, finishing only in 8th place with a time of 10.10. Akani Simbine, the other South African in this 100m, finished in fifth position with a time of 10.05.
«This is my second victory in the Diamond League, so I am obviously delighted. This trip was very fruitful. I hope to win more victories in the future. We had some good training times and are continuing to build on that because our pre-season preparation was excellent,"
Omanyala said after his victory, as reported by The Star.
Regularity and consistency
Impressive in his consistency and consistency, Ferdinand Omanyala started his season with a victory at the Addis Ababa Grand Prix on 18 April. The Kenyan had finished his race in 9.98 seconds, which was already huge for his first sprint of the season. But the record holder of the African 100m did not stop there.
A week after Ethiopia, Ferdinand Omanyala confirmed and even did better in his country, Kenya during the Classic of Kip Keino at Nyayo National Stadium on 24 April, finishing the distance in 9.96s, thus experiencing an increase of two tenths more.
His third race of the season was even more attractive with a time of 9.95s in the Golden Grand Prix of Botswana, on the land of Tebogo. If he fell back to 9.98s at the Shanghai Meeting on 16 May for his first race of the season in the Diamond League, Ferdinand Omanyala quickly followed up by setting the best time of the season on Saturday in Xiamen, still in China.
With five consecutive wins in five competitions, all won under 10 seconds, Omanyala is on course for a memorable season. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to beat his own record of 9.77s, set in 2021 in his native Kenya, which remains the African 100m record to this day.
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À propos de l'auteur
Philemon MBALE
Rédacteur sportif
Passionné de sport depuis toujours, partage avec vous les dernières actualités et analyses du monde sportif.