Nairobi — Commonwealth Games champion Ferdinand Omanyala will potentially compete thrice on the opening day of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, on Friday.
The heats, semis and final of the 60m dash are all planned for the first of the three-0day championship, where Omanyala will compete for the second time, and hoping to do better than 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia, when he reached the semis.
Here is the entire Team Kenya schedule for the opening day.
2:30pm - Women's 800m heats
Vivian Chebet and Naomi Korir will fly Kenya's flag in this race. Chebet will be the first Kenyan on the track in heat one, where competition will be stiff. She will compete against Jamaican Natoya Goule and Habitam Alemu of Ethiopia, who are the only ones with a sub-two-minute personal best.
The 28-year-old Kenyan has the slowest PB in the heat, with 2:03.72 which she set in Germany last month.
Korir will meanwhile compete in heat two. She has an indoor PB of 2:00.66 which she clocked in Spain in 2002.
3:16pm - Men's 800m
Kenya will also have two athletes representing the country in this race. Former World U20 silver medalist Noah Kibet and Collins Kipruto have been tasked with hunting for medals for Team Kenya.
Kipruto will be first on track in heat one, where he also competes against Botswana's Tshepiso Masalela as well as Algeria's Mohamed Ali Gouaned who has the fastest PB in the heat.
Kibet will be seeking his first senior global medal and he competes in heat two with the second fastest PB of 1:44.98, and his closest competitor is expected to be American Bryce Hoppel who has an indoor PB of 1:44.37 and is ranked eighth in the world.
3:58pm - Men's 60m
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Omanyala will be Kenya's solo flag bearer in the 60m dash, and he lines up in heat four, where he is the fastest man this season.
Omanyala, ranked third globally, broke his own national record twice in France three weeks ago, running 6.52 in Miramas before lowering that time to 6.51 in Paris.
Canadian Brandon Rodney is the closest competitor expected for Omanyala, as he has a PB of 6.57 and has run 6.59 this season.
11:10 - Men's 1500m
Kenya will have a single representative in this race, youngster Vincent Keter. The 21-year-old, with a season's best time of 3:34.44 is ranked 15th in the world and is the second fastest person in this heat, behind USA's Hobbs Kessler who has timed 3:33.66 and is ranked 11th in the world.
Potentially, Omanyala will compete in the semi-finals of the 60m dash at 10:45pm while the final is scheduled for 12:45am.
