Africa’s fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala, is set for a high-octane sprint duel against American Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles in a 150m straight race at the Adidas Atlanta City Games on Saturday.
This will be Omanyala’s third appearance at the Atlanta meet, having last featured in the 100m in 2024, where he settled for second in 10.00 seconds behind South Africa’s Akani Simbine, who posted a world-leading 9.90 at the time.
The much-anticipated sprint showdown will be the second 150m clash between Omanyala and Lyles after their 2023 meeting. In that race, Lyles stormed to victory in 14.46, while Omanyala finished third in 14.89.
Lyles, the world 100m and 200m champion, has the third-fastest time ever over the distance, a scorching 14.41 seconds, set last year at the Atlanta games.
He shares the mark with three-time Olympic gold medallist Tyson Gay. The world best remains Usain Bolt’s 14.35, clocked in Manchester in 2009.
Omanyala, the 2022 Commonwealth Games 100m gold medallist, heads to Atlanta hoping to rebound from a lacklustre outing at the Shanghai Diamond League on May 3, where he finished last in 10.25.
Simbine, in red-hot form this season, topped that Shanghai race with 9.98, edging out Jamaica’s Olympic silver medallist Kishane Thompson (9.99) and Botswana’s Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo (10.03).
Since opening his 2025 campaign on March 12 at the ASA Grand Prix in South Africa, Omanyala’s season has seen mixed results.
He placed third in the first leg in South Africa (10.22) before bouncing back to win the second leg (10.08).
He claimed victory at the Uganda National trials on March 29, clocking 10.09 before clocking 10.00 to finish second to Simbine (9.90) at the Botswana Grand Prix on April 12.
Omanyala opened his Diamond League campaign with a second-place finish in Xiamen, running 10.13 behind Simbine, who triumphed in 9.99.
Despite the inconsistent form, the 29-year-old sprint ace views these early-season competitions as crucial tune-ups ahead of the World Championships in Tokyo this September.
“I hope I can only get better and better,” Omanyala said after the Xiamen race.
His confidence will be boosted by a historic performance at the World Relays in Guangzhou, China, last weekend, where he helped power Kenya’s 4x100m team to a landmark qualification for the World Championships.
Teaming up with veteran sprinter Boniface Mweresa, national champion Meshack Babu and Steve Odhiambo, the quartet clocked 38.51 to finish second in Round Two of qualifying — becoming the first Kenyan team to reach the global showpiece in the discipline.
The quartet had set a new national mark of 38.35 during the first round of qualifiers, where they finished third.
Lyles, meanwhile, has opened his 2025 campaign with dominance.
He stormed to indoor 60m victories at the RADD Sports College Invitational (6.62) on January 25 and the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix (6.52) on February 2.
Outdoors, he anchored the U.S. 4x100m team — alongside Christian Coleman, Pjai Austin, and Erriyon Knighton — to a swift 37.90 victory at the Tom Jones Memorial on April 19.
The only blemish on Lyles’ record this year came in a 400m — an odd event for the short sprint sensation — where he placed fifth in 45.87 at the Tom Jones meet.
Adding more firepower to the 150m straight field in Atlanta are Dominican Republic’s Olympic silver medallist Alexander Ogando, Bahamas’ Terrence Jones and Ivory Coast’s Cheickna Traore.
In the men’s 100m, Simbine will look to extend his dominant run against a star-studded lineup featuring Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, world 200m silver medallist Erriyon Knighton, Jamaican Ryiem Ford, Americans Kendal Williams and Cravont Charleston and Nigeria’s Udodi Onwuzurike.
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