Coach Duncan Ayiemba Raises Expectations as Ferdinand Omanyala Opens 2026 Season with Four Sub-10 Runs

Ferdinand Omanyala's coach, Duncan Ayiemba, has set high expectations for Africa's fastest man as the outdoor season gathers momentum.

After reuniting in late 2025 ahead of the 2026 campaign, Omanyala and Ayiemba have already begun to show encouraging signs of progress.

The Commonwealth Games champion has opened his season strongly, clocking sub-10-second times in four consecutive races.

He started his campaign at the Addis Ababa Grand Prix in Ethiopia, winning the men’s 100m race in 9.98 seconds before heading to the Kip Keino Classic, where he claimed the win in 9.96 seconds.

Ferdinand Omanyala then lined up for the Botswana Golden Grand Prix, where he finished third in 9.95 seconds before his recent exploits at the Diamond League Meeting in Shanghai, where he finished second in 9.98 seconds.

Duncan Ayiemba noted that Ferdinand Omanyala has been in a consistent phase of preparation and insisted that the work done in training has been ongoing.

Ayiemba expressed some disappointment that the Shanghai performance did not reflect the level they had anticipated, although he acknowledged that the athlete is still in a heavy training cycle and building towards peak condition.

He added that the run still showed encouraging signs of progress and indicated that Africa’s fastest man is moving in the right direction.

Ayiemba explained that his approach since reuniting with Omanyala has focused on restoring a winning mindset and rebuilding overall confidence, rather than making drastic technical changes.

According to him, Ferdinand Omanyala is gradually returning to his previous physical standards seen in 2024, with improvements in strength and consistency during training sessions suggesting that a stronger competitive performance is likely to follow in upcoming races.

“We’ve been training, definitely. I expected a better time than that, though, since he is still loading. That is a better performance from him,” Duncan Ayiemba told Tuko Sports journalist Martin Moses.

“It’s not like I have changed anything since we worked together; I have just reset the system to winning ways. I’ve regained his confidence, and now he is training well, and his strength has also returned to how it was in 2024.”

Duncan Ayiemba indicated that Ferdinand Omanyala’s sprinting ability is returning rapidly and suggested that further improvements in race times are anticipated as training progresses.

Ayiemba explained that the current focus has been on rebuilding mental assurance and restoring Ferdinand Omanyala’s natural ability to perform at high speed, emphasising that both psychological readiness and proper central nervous system function are essential for peak performance.

He added that the work at this stage is centred on fine-tuning conditioning and accelerating speed development so that Omanyala can consistently reach the level of results he previously achieved in earlier seasons.

“His speed is also coming back very fast, and as we go on, we expect better times. I expect good times because what I’ve done now is just returning his confidence, because he is a strong guy and knows how to run fast,” he added.

“Without confidence, without the CNS right, everything doesn’t go well. Now it’s all about sharpening him and bringing back his speed so that he gets the good times that he always had previously.”

Ferdinand Omanyala now shifts focus to the Diamond League Meeting in Xiamen scheduled for Saturday, May 23.