Africa's fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala has opened up on the possibility of attacking Usain Bolt's world record in the near future.
Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala has opened up on attacking Usain Bolt’s 100m world record, noting that in the right time, everything is possible.
Bolt’s 100m world record stands at 9.58, a time he ran during the 2009 World Athletics Championships final in Berlin, Germany on August 16.
The Commonwealth Games champion explained that as he started out his career, the African record seemed too difficult to break but he is now the African record holder. He crowned the honours following his explosive run at the 2021 Kip Keino Classic, clocking 9.77 at the event.
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“When we started running the African record was far off and nobody thought that it could be broken but we broke it twice…that’s the same thing I’ll say with the world record, it’s not something that’s impossible, so we’ll get there,” Omanyala said.
He also reveled at having shown the potential that Kenyan athletes have when it comes to sprinting. With the rise of Omanyala, there has been great improvement in sprints in Kenya and many Kenyans are now taking up sprints.
Omanyala’s younger brother, Isaac Omurwa, is among the tons of youngsters who are slowly taking the world of sprints by storm.
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“I think I have a woken a sleeping giant because we have the talent and we have guys who are running very fast. We play rugby so well and I’m sure in the next five years, it will be incomparable.
“There are a lot of guys running 10.20 and 10.30 right now so we just need to give them the proper motivation and the proper skills to jump to the next level.
“I have seen people running fast and talk big and I’ve had the experience of running 9.80 in March, I’ve had the experience of running 9.7 in April, so I know how that feels. I don’t want that anymore, I want to run fast when it matters,” Omanyala added.