Star sprinters standing between Omanyala & gold at World Indoor Championships

The eagerly awaited 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships is set to kick off on Friday, March 1 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Kenya has sent a strong team to the championships with the hopes of registering a better performance compared to the last edition which was staged in Belgrade, Serbia.

Among them is the reigning 100m African record holder Ferdinand Omurwa Omanyala and world under 20 1500m record holder Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot.

Omanyala, who is among the favorites to win a gold medal in the championships, already left the country seeking to produce a statement performance after an impressive start to the season.

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In Glasgow, Omanyala is expected to battle it out for the coveted title with a number of brilliant runners including the American duo of Christian Coleman and Noah Lyles.

Lyles, who has the fastest personal best of 6.43 seconds going into the championships, is Omanyala’s main threat in the event.

Lyles and Omanyala have faced each other on several occasions in the recent past with Lyles having a better head-to-head performance over the Kenyan gem, especially over 100m.

Meanwhile, Coleman also heads to Glasgow as the current 60m indoor world record holder having set the mark of 6:34 in 2018.  

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The 27-year-old has shown signs of bettering his performances this year having clocked 6:51 at the Milrose Games.

Another runner who is likely to deny Omanyala a podium-place position is Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake who boasts of a personal best of 6.42.

Besides the trio, some of the other runners that the Friends School Kamusinga alumni will go head-to-head with include Japan’s Shuhei Tada (6.53), Mario Burke (6.55) of Barbados, Liberia’s Emmanuel Matadi (6:52) and Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme (6.55).

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Canada’s Malachi Murray (6.55) and United States’ Ronnie Baker (6.40) will also be in contention. 

Omanyala has had a good preparation ahead of the championships. He recently lowered the national 60m record twice in two indoor meets which were held in France. 

He first clocked 6.52s at the Elite Indoor Track Miramas Meeting before lowering the national record to 6.51s at the Meeting Indoor de Paris just a week later. The time is also his personal best.

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