Newly-crowned men's 100 metres Commonwealth champion Ferdinand Omanyala has pledged to replicate his heroics at next week’s Spitzen Leichtathletick World Continental Tour in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Omanyala said he will similarly be targeting a masterstroke at the 2022 ISTAF World Continental Tour Silver in Berlin, Germany, too.
Speaking on Monday, Omanyala dismissed suggestions he is under the pump to pull off major surprises in Lucerne and Berlin after breaking the glass ceiling in Birmingham to clinch gold.
He emphasized his intention to "have fun" as he breezes to the finish line next week.
“No pressure on me at all. I'm not setting any targets in the races. My aim is to have fun. After all, I have already achieved enough this season,” Omanyala said.
The Kenyan track sensation said he would have wished to grace the Diamond League, only that the series came immediately after the World Athletics Championship in Oregon and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games in the UK.
“I had initially hoped to compete in the Diamond League series but most of the legs coincided with the World Athletics Championships and the Commonwealth Games.”
Omanyala said he cracked his target this year when he stormed to the gold podium after outclassing defending champion Akani Simbine of South Africa in the blistering Commonwealth Games finals at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. “I dreamt of a medal this year and bagged it in Birmingham.”
The 26-year-old Chemistry student at the University of Nairobi has experienced a rollercoaster ride this season.
He sprang to international limelight after running 9.85 to bag the men’s 100m at the Kip Keino Classic, edging world champion Fred Kerley of the United States to the title.
Many believed he would have destroyed the field to clinch gold in Eugene, Oregon but an eleventh-hour visa hitch nipped his dreams in the bud.
Omanyala, nonetheless, brushed the storm aside to record a landmark win in the men's 100m final at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, where he clocked 10.02.
However, a grave howler by Kenyan sprinters in the 4×100 denied him another feather in the cap.
Kenya was disqualified from the event after one of the athletes dropped the baton before handing it over to Omanyala who was waiting to blaze to the finish line.
The National Police Service officer says he is also training his sights on a dream performance at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest next year.
“I'm looking forward to a good run in Hungary next year and thereafter fight for a podium finish in Paris 2024,” Omanyala said.
