Africa's 'fastest man' Omanyala wants to challenge the best in Paris

The current men's 100-meter sprinting African record is held by Kenya's Ferdinand Omanyala who set it at 9.77 seconds at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 18, 2021. It ranks in the ninth place in the world, but Omanyala wants to be more than “the fastest man” of Africa.

Three years ago in Tokyo, Omanyala made his Olympic debut and finished it in the men's 100-meter semifinals which he ran in 10 seconds. Now he is looking at his second edition of the Games in Paris this year, Omanyala feels excited about it.

"Yeah, I'm excited about this one, because I'm getting in as a second fastest in the world this year and third in the world ranking, so that gives me an edge over the others," Omanyala told CGTN's Mohamed Abubakar. "… I'm glad that this time it's different because I've had to make so many changes between 2021 and now to make sure we get this right."

"When I changed my coach and the approach this season, we didn't want to pick too fast too early. The last two seasons we've been running too fast in April and March and then later on in the championships we're not doing good, so we've changed that approach and I'm happy and positive that it's going to work," he added.

Omanyala will be joined by other African sprinters on the men's 100-meter track, including Akani Simbine of South Africa and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.

"I'm glad that I joined and found Simbine in the sport, I was looking up to him before I became who I was," Omanyala said. "I'll be so happy to see him make the final. Tebogo is a silver medalist from last year's world champs and I'm sure he'll be there."

"It'll be a blessing to have three Africans in the final but again we can't think about the final and we have not done even the heats. So I won't talk too much about it, because I want to handle each stage as it comes. The most important thing is to get in there and we start on from the heats and get through the rounds," the Kenyan sprinter added.