(Sports news) Ferdinand Omanyala Omurwa of Kenya ran a 9.77 secs as he finished ahead of Justin Gatlin who came third with a timing of 10.02 secs and Trayvon Bromell running a season leading 9.76 secs to capture the Continental Tour Gold Series at the Moi International Sports Centre in Nairobi. This was the final race of the year as it was also the fastest one this year, the last time two sprinters finished under 9.80s was in 2012 London Olympics and it was the fastest 100m race ever.
Trayvon Bromell has now run the fastest time this year in 100 metres and the 6th fastest in history with his performance in Kenya. Omanyala has run the eight fastest of all time and he became the first Kenyan to run in the semifinals of the men's 100m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Omanyala became the first Kenyan to break the sub 10 barrier when he ran a 9.96 secs at the International Josko Lauf Meeting in Austria a month back and lowered it to 9.86 secs in the final. He broke Akani Simbine’s record of 9.84 secs which he had run in July and will look to go under 9.70s and become the fourth man to do it after Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Tyson Gay.
Usain Bolt has both the World records in 100m and 200m, he had run a 9.58 secs in the 100m and a 19.19 secs in 2009 at Berlin. In the current runners only Gatlin, Bromell and Christian Coleman have come closest to breaking it. Although the record seems to be safe, now there might be a minor one in a million chance that there will be a new record or a run under 9.75 secs next year. Bolt is the only athlete to ever run a 100 metre under 9.60 secs also under 9.65 secs and also holds the Olympics records in 100m and 200m.
Omanyala has defied the tradition of Kenyan runners as they are mostly known for their endurance, they have been dominating the middle and long distance running for the past few decades. Omanyala has been sprinting towards records for the country as he has improved his timings considerably this year, this year’s leading time of 9.76 is the joint fastest in the last five years as in 2019 Coleman ran the same timing. Gatlin ran a 9.74 secs in 2015 which has not been surpassed ever since and is currently 39 years old and still giving tough competition to rivales who are over 15 years younger to him. He is one of the seniors in athletics and can break Kim Collins' record of 9.93 secs which is the fastest by a 40 year old.
Fredrick Lee Kerley shift from 400m has paid off well as he ran a personal best of 19.76 secs to win in Nairobi, he had become the first athlete to win the 100m, 200m and 400m in Diamond League and is the third athlete after Wayde van Niekerk and Michael Norman to run a sub 10 in the 100m, sub 20 in 200m and sub 44 secs in 400m. Kerley is a well built athlete and a tall one like Bolt as he is 6ft 3 inch and had won the silver in the 100m behind Lamont Marcell Jacobs at the 2020Tokyo Olympics. One individual beating both the 100m and 200m world record is near to impossible task but the current set of sprinters are finding their pace in each event and can target a single event for now.
