Omanyala enjoys golden finale after leaving Sevens
THE one that got away. Kenya’s men’s Sevens team are not quite the force they once were – they finished equal seventh with Canada in the recent Commonwealth Games Sevens tournament – and it must have been a tad galling looking over to the atheltics stadium to watch Ferdinand Omanyala streak home to take gold in the men’s 100m final.
Until his late teens, Omanyala was a hot shot rugby player at the Friends School Kamusinga and he also played rugby during his first year at Nairobi University where he was studying for a chemistry degree and was playing with the MKU Stingerz club.
He had been called into a Kenya U20 Sevens squad but University athletics coach Duncan Oyiemba clocked him at a Sevens tournament and swooped, persuading him to switch sports.
In the land of slight, long legged, middle and long distance runners the squat and immensely powerful Omanyala was an unusual physical type but he made an immediate
impression, posting a 10.4 seconds time within weeks of taking up athletics. His 9.77 last year took him into true world class and he won the Commonwealth title last week at a canter.
It hasn’t been without controversy. In 2017 he woke up on the morning of a race with nerve pain in his left leg and went to the team doctor who gave him an injection in his back which he identified as the source of the problem. Unfortunately
for Omanyala the injection of tramadol and diprofos contained the prohibited steroid betamethasone and he had to serve a two year ban. Well that’s his explanation.
In fact the Kenyan Federation insisted he would remain ineligible even after he had served his ban but Omanyala successfully contested the issue in court which allowed him to return in time for the delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.