Ferdinand Omanyala move to the next round in the worlds despite having arriving at the event late.
Kenyan Athlete Ferdinand Omanyala makes it to the next round in the 100 meters of the worlds despite visa delay.
Omanyala had visa issues that felt like he would miss the worlds but later scaled through to be present in the event.
The Kenyan made it to the semi after he crossed the finish line, though, the exhaustion hit him hard.
“I never knew I was tired until I ran that race,” said Omanyala, who advanced on a night when Fred Kerley turned in the fastest time at 9.79 seconds. “It was disappointing (the visa issues). But you have to put the challenges aside. You have to come here and run.”
It was a race just to make it to his race due to a delay in securing his visa. He was actually resigned to sitting this one out.
But his paperwork was approved at the final hour and his team quickly scrambled to book a flight. It was quite a trek, too — flights from Nairobi to Doha, then to Seattle, and finally to Eugene and one last ride to Hayward Field. All in all, he spent about 20 hours on planes. That doesn’t include the layovers.
Omanyala has always made it his routine to arrive at any of the event days before it commences but it was a different case this time around.
“This was just different,” he said. “This was a first. I’ve never had such a situation before.”
