Ferdinand Omanyala reveals his main target at upcoming World Indoor Championship

ATHLETICS Ferdinand Omanyala reveals his main target at upcoming World Indoor Championship

Mark Kinyanjui 05:58 - 23.02.2024

Ferdinand Omanyala's camp has explained what they are aiming for at next month's World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Ferdinand Omanyala has revealed his target at the upcoming Glasgow World Indoor Championship games in the 60m category 

Omanyala reached the semi-finals during the 2022 edition in Belgrade Serbia, clocking 6.64 minutes and finishing 13th overall at the event.

The speedstar has since honed his craft, getting faster gradually, and under new coach Geoffrey Kimani, has taken his season by storm, setting a new national record of 6.52 in  Miramas, France before following it up with a 6.51 time in Paris earlier this month.

As he gears up for the indoor games where he will be up against the world’s best, his coach, Geoffrey Kimani has revealed his targets for the upcoming event, listing down his training regimen for the next for weeks before the championships commence in March.

“Before he ran for the indoor season, I told him, ‘you are in 6.48, 6.50, so we are already  at 6.51, so we have a target goal to get to the final of the world championship, and he knows what that target is,” Kimani told NTV'S Sport On.

Omanyala has tended to peak in previous seasons before fading away in disappointing fashion, like in 2023, when he went to the World Championship as the world leader before finishing seventh in the final.

Now, Kimani has revealed how both coach and athlete are working round the clock to solve that problem in order to peak at the right moment.

“You can plan for a peak, you can even decide when you are going to peak, that is what we call periodisation,” Kimani said.

“For example, last time he made the semis, so we agreed, ‘for you to make the world indoors, you need to be around 6.48, 650. Once you get to the final, then we can talk about other things’.

“Now you plan your sessions based on his first peak, which is going to be for the indoors, then he comes back and we go into what we call a transition, then you start building up again for the next peak, so it is a series of peaks that are planned for.

“This year, now scientifically, we call it a double periodised year, so he has an opportunity to peak twice, so if you don’t follow that periodised route, then you will have an athlete who peaks very fast and then fades away very early in the season.

“Those peaks also tell you, you can have an indication. For example he can tell you, his first sub-nine, he ran to the mark that I had told him. For example, I told him, ‘your first sub 10 will be 9.96 and that is what he ran, based on the times he was giving me and the programme we were having during the pre-Olympic camp.”

Kimani has hinted that Omanyala’s training session for the next one month will be focused on acceleration.

“It is a series of training sessions. For example, we can say in these four weeks, our focus will be only on acceleration, and that acceleration should culminate in you getting me these times," he added.

“There is  a template that we use, if he is around 3.8 in the 30s, 3.6s, we are looking at this time in the 60. You are able to project, then you can double back, regress and see.

“If we are not getting there, what do we need to do before trouble hits us ahead?  If he is ahead, we can also tether him.”

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