Africa 100m Champion Omanyala Out Of African Games

REIGNING African Championships 100m king, Ferdinand Omanyala, has missed the opportunity to become the first Kenyan and fourth African to hold the African Games and African Championships title at the same time.

Omanyala, 27, is not in Kenya’s list for the 13th African Games, which officially started on Friday in Accra, Ghana and will thus not be able to confirm his status as Africa’s in the blue ribband event.

The reigning Commonwealth Games speed king was crowned the 100m champion at the African Athletics Championships in Mauritius in 2022, thereby, becoming the second Kenyan after Joseph Gikonyo in 1990 to win the gold medal in the prestigious event.

The World Indoor Championship 60m finalist has now missed the chance of becoming the first Kenyan to hold the African Games and African Championships 100m title at the same time and confirm his status as the undisputed African speed king.

Only three men in the history of the Championships have achieved that rare feat and two of them are Nigerians.

Chidi Imoh was the first to emerge Africa’s undisputed 100m champion.

Imoh won back to back 100m titles at the African Championships in 1984 and 1985 before going to Nairobi, Kenya in 1987 to be crowned African Games champion.

Olusoji Fasuba also made history in 2007 in Algiers when he won the African Games 100m title a year after he was crowned African Championships champion for the second time.

The former African 100m record holder also returned as champion for the third straight time at the 2008 African Championships in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Ivorian, Ben Youssef Meite became the time man in history to hold both titles at the same time after storming Durban in South Africa in 2016 as African Games 100m champion to beat Mosito Lehata of Lesotho and home boy, Akani Simbine, to the blue ribband title.