Just like any other kid in Africa growing up in a humble background in western Kenya, Ferdinand Omanyala never imagined that he would turn out to be the fastest man on the continent. He tried so much before settling for athletics.
Speaking to the media, the fastest man in Africa revealed that he started off his sporting career as a volleyball player. “I have loved sports since I was young, getting to high school, I started by playing Volleyball but my height in the discipline was not favorable for me.”
The national record holder later in high school switched to basketball and then hockey. “I played basketball a bit at Friends School Kamusinga before switching to hockey but I remember one evening, my desk mate was hit by a puck and that was how I quit playing hockey,” he recalled.
“I played Sevens rugby as a winger at Kamusinga with Mwamba RFC player Steve Sikuta at a time his brother Dan Sikuta was already playing for the national team. In 2015, just after finishing secondary school, I was invited for Kenya Under-20 team trials in Nairobi, but I lost my way and only traced the venue two days later, by which time I learned the team had been selected.”
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“I loved rugby and grew up idolizing Kenya Sevens star Collins Injera,” the sprinter who later played for Kenya Rugby Union championship team Mount Kenya University after failing to nail down a place at the more competitive University of Nairobi rugby team Mean Machine, said.
He switched to athletics full-time to attend his first race in 2015, a broke Omanyala was given bus fare by his classmate Patricia to attend an athletics championship in Mumias.
He beat seasoned sprinters and made news headlines, then the University of Nairobi took note. From then, the university facilitated his trips to athletics competitions.
Since then Omanyala has gone ahead and broken the national and Africa’s 100M race. Recently, on 18th February 2022, he broke his National Record in 60 meters indoor. Omanyala clocked 6.57 seconds to finish fourth at the Meeting Hauts-de- France Pas-de-Calais.
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