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The four-time Olympic champion believes the Kenyan has the best possible chance of ending the 100m medal drought for Africa
American sprint legend Michael Johnson has backed Ferdinand Omanyala to win a medal at this year’s World Athletics Championships.
No athlete from Africa has ever won 100m medal at the Worlds but the four-time Olympic champion believes the Kenyan has the best possible chance to end that drought among all sprinters currently competing from the continent.
To do that, however, Johnson feels Omanyala will need to keep competing consistently at the highest level to get in the best possible shape before the global event in Budapest, Hungary in August.
“No male athlete representing an African country has ever medaled at a World Championship in the 100m. Ferdinand Omanyala has the best chance this year,” Johnson, an eight-time world champion, said on Twitter.
“He must continue to compete well against the best consistently over the next few months to produce a medal performance in Budapest,” he added.
It is high praise for Omanyala given Johnson was once considered the best sprinter in the world before the emergence of Jamaican Usain Bolt.
Johnson formerly held the 200m and 400m world and Olympic world records and is also the only man to successfully defend his Olympic title in the 400m, having done so at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
Aside from his Olympic success, Johnson accumulated eight gold medals at the World Championships and is tied with Carl Lewis for the fourth most gold medals won by a runner.
Omanyala would, therefore, do well to take on the advise given he has started his season well, clocking 10.05 in Germiston on April 19, seven seconds faster than his 10.12 in Pretoria a week earlier, during the season-opening ASA Athletics Grand Prix II in South Africa.
That was before he run 9.78, his first sub-10 of the season, at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix last weekend, although his time was not ratified as a world lead since it was wind-assisted.
The Commonwealth champion missed his African record by 0.01 seconds but has a chance to right those wrongs on home soil during the Kip Keino Classic at Kasarani Stadium on May 13.
Omanyala will run 150m at the Atlanta City Games, USA on Friday before he turns focus on the Nairobi event.
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