Kenya: Speedster Omanyala Links Up With Old Friend in Race for Glory at World Indoor Championships

24 October 2023

Nairobi — Africa's fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala, has called on the assistance of an old friend in his race to next year's World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland as well as the Paris Olympics in France.

The Commonwealth Games 100m champion will now be under the tutelage of renowned strength and conditioning coach Geoffrey Kimani who is already putting him through his paces ahead of a crammed season.

Announcing the link-up, Kimani expressed his delight at taking up the mantle of Omanyala's sprint coach.

"A new dawn...back on track and greatly honoured to take up the role of sprints coach to Ferdinand Omanyala through a busy 2024 season. We will be kicking off the season with the World Indoors in March...onto the hard work," Kimani said.

This is the second time the two will be working together having linked up in the run-up and during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 where the African 100m champion reached the semi-finals.

It was also in the same year that Omanyala clocked 9.77 at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi to set a new African record -- smashing the previous 9.84 held by South African Akani Simbine.

Kimani comes equipped with a rich reputation, having served in the sports sector in various capacities.

He was the strength and conditioning coach for Team Kenya at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, a position he juggled with that of a sprints and hurdles coach.

Kimani was also the sprints and hurdles coach for the national team to the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.

He is an accredited World Rugby S &C educator as well as a World Athletics sprints and hurdles educator.

With Kimani in his corner, Omanyala will be hopeful of better returns than this year's World Championships in Budapest, Hungary where he finished a disappointing seventh in the men's 100m.

He, however, closed out his season with a third-place finish at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, United States, last month.

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