Ferdinand Omanyala shares denied opportunity that forced him to miss the Diamond League final
erdinand Omanyala has given an account of ‘discrimination’ he faced that could not allow him to gather enough points for the Diamond League Meeting final in Brussels.
When Ferdinand Omanyala started the 2024 season, he was sure about making it to the Diamond League Meeting final but a few hiccups during the season prevented him from achieving the goal.
In an interview with CNN journalist Larry Madowo, Africa’s fastest man noted that some meet organisers could not allow him to compete in their Diamond League due to a previous ban from the Athletics Integrity Unit.
In 2017, Omanyala received a 14-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance betamethasone. At the time, he claimed that he was fresh from undergoing treatment for a back injury he got during a training session. Failure to compete in enough Diamond League Meetings, Omanyala could not get enough points to qualify for the final hence running in the invitational meet.
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“A win is a win…I was expected to run yesterday but there was no open lane because we did not get enough points. Some organisers told us that we had a previous ban we couldn’t run in their Diamond League, so we couldn’t get enough points to run yesterday (the men’s 100m Diamond League final),” Omanyala said.
He expressed excitement to have ended the season on a high. However, he noted that the field in the invitational race was not as strong as the one in the Diamond League. In the race, Omanyala won, clocking a time of 10.07 seconds to cross the finish line.
He was grateful to have had the chance to compete in Brussels and pick lessons from his win as he looks forward to having a better season next year. He reflected on his 2024 season, explaining that it has been a turbulent one but he somehow managed to bounce back in the face of adversity.
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“I’m glad that we were given a chance today to run the invitational. I mean, it’s been nice, it’s been great, it’s just that the competition wasn’t that much. It’s always nice to compete and just get the lessons out and pick them for the next season,” Omanyala said.
“We are done because this was the last race of the season so we are looking forward to next year, it’s been one hell of a season but this season has been like a ball, when a ball is thrown up, it has to come down eventually but it depends on where it will land. If it lands on water, then that is it but if it lands on land, then it comes back up. We have to push this until we get more guys from Kenya doing sprints.”
