•He took the bold step to attempt his fortunes on the track after years of dabbling in rugby.
•Omanyala's biggest feat ever was the gold medal he bagged at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Image: FERDINAND OMNAYALA/TWITTER
Commonwealth 100 metres champion and Africa record holder, Ferdinand Omanyala, has urged fledgling athletes to pursue education at the highest level.
Speaking on Tuesday, Omanyala attributed his succesful journey in athletics to education, adding that attending school had opened many opportunities for him.
The sprint sensation said he could have rotted in the village if his parents hadn't taken him to school.
“Education is what has brought me this far. If I hadn't joined the University of Nairobi then, perhaps, I couldn't be here today. I came to Nairobi because of education,” Omanyala said.
His remarks come amid the general perception that most athletes plough through books and struggle in school
“Talent and education go hand in hand. So I want to urge the junior athletes to make good use of their education and let their studies come first and then use it to build their careers in track,” Omanyala said.
Omanyala launched his athletics career at the University of Nairobi where he enrolled for a bachelor's degree in Chemistry.
He took the bold step to attempt his fortunes on the track after years of dabbling in rugby.
“A friend asked me to take a stab at the springs after noticing my speed as I played rugby,” Omanyala said.
He clocked an impressive 10.4 seconds in his first Athletics Kenya (AK) meet in Kakamega.
The same year, he stormed to victory in the national Olympics trials after clocking 10.37. He, however, fell short of the Olympic Games qualification Time that was set at 10.16.
He, nonetheless, suffered a major setback in 2017 when the Anti-doping Agency of Kenya (Adak), banned him for 14 months after he tested positive for glucocorticoid betamethasone, a substance banned by World Anti-Doping Agency.
His coach Duncan Ayiemba was slapped with a two-year ban for administration or an attempt to administer betamethasone.
This was after he tested positive for the prohibited substance betamethasone, which he said might have found its way into his system when he underwent treatment for his back injury which he got during training.
Omanyala won the national title in 2019 and set a national record of 10.01 seconds at Yabatech Sports Complex in Lagos, Nigeria two years later.
He set a new national record of 10.00 seconds at the 2020 Summer Games and ran a new personal best of 9.86 seconds in Austria to make history as the first Kenyan to ever break the 10-second barrier.
In September 2021, he clocked 9.77 (+1.2 m/s) to set a new African record at the Absa Kip Keino Classic held in Nairobi where he placed second behind Trayvon Bromell, who ran a world-leading time of 9.76.
Omanyala's biggest feat ever was the gold medal he bagged at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.