Sprint sensation Ferdinand Omanyala is crossing his fingers that Athletics Kenya go easy on their uncompromising stance on doping offenders to allow him to fly the country's flag at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Despite already having qualified for the Olympics, it remains to be seen whether the sprinter will be given the green light to wear the national colours by Athletics Kenya, whose tough anti-doping stand prohibits an athlete with a doping history from representing the country.
Omanyala was in 2017 suspended for 14 months by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya following an anti-doping rule violation but took AK to the Sports Disputes Tribunal over their ban on athletes who have served such bans.
"I am not sure about that (getting the green light from AK). But I hope they do," said Omanyala.
Regardless, he still maintains his Olympic dream remains.
"Yes, my Olympic dream is very much on. I can compete as a neutral athlete under World Athletics," he said.
Omanyala, who was due in the country on Sunday, set a new 100m national record when he clocked 10.01 seconds on Tuesday night at the Making of Champions (MOC) Grand Prix in Lagos, Nigeria.
"I feel so nice because I ran national records in January 2021 (10.11) and 10.14 in Eldoret in 2019 but both were considered wind-aided. I have been trying to get that record for a long time and I am glad that now I have it. God is great. Running 10.01 and qualifying for the Olympics is another thing. Now am going to even work harder so that I can be at the Olympics finals," enthused Omanyala.
The speedster put down his near-flawless sprints in competitions over the last couple of years to his strict training regime and maintained he was not about to take his foot off the pedal. He further hopes that he would be exempted from the governments wholesale suspension of sporting activities to bring down the spread of the coronavirus.
"My schedule includes training for six hours a day, doing track sessions from Monday to Saturday. I also do gym work four times a week," he disclosed.
"I hope I will get an exception to prepare for the Olympics because I have qualified. I just need to train. I will try to qualify for the 200m too."
Omanyala is now set to become the first Kenyan to compete in the event for the first time in over two decades following Joseph Gikonyo's appearance at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Mark Odhiambo, Kenya's previous record holder and foremost sprinter is also fighting to qualify for Tokyo.
"The more the merrier. It's a good time for sprints in the country. We have many talented guys in the stable and we hope we qualify as many as we can," concluded Omanyala.
Kenya have never won an international medal in the short sprints with the late Kennedy Ondieki the last man to progress into the quarter-finals, dating back to the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
