Ferdinand Omanyala Ahead of Noah Lyles in Race for Ksh3.8 Million Slots Despite Recent Woes

Ferdinand Omanyala may have experienced poor results in his last two Diamond League events but it has not had a huge impact on his standings on the leaderboard.

Omanyala had another tough outing in Paris last Sunday, when he finished sixth in a race won by American Trayvon Bromell, while he had managed eighth place in Rome early last month, with Olympics champion Noah Lyles winning the race.

However, having started the season in scintillating form, Omanyala has reaped the rewards as he is joint top on the men’s 100m leaderboard which will determine who makes the final in Brussels, Belgium in September.

Africa’s fastest man was second in the season-opening Shanghai Diamond League in May before stunning a strong field to win in Xiamen the following week. Those two good results propelled Omanyala to the top and after the first seven series meetings, he is tied on 19 points with Bromell.

Omanyala and Bromell are four points ahead of Lyles, who is among three athletes on 15 points, the others being South African duo Gift Leotlela and Akani Simbine.

American Kenny Bednarek has 11 points, former Olympics champion Marcell Jacobs on 10, while Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and Briton Anthony Jordan are both tied on nine points.

With six more legs remaining; Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Monaco, London, Lausanne, Silesia and Zurich still to go before the final, a lot will change depending on their performances in their subsequent races.

However, Omanyala is in prime position to seal a ticket to the lucrative final which he missed out last season after a poor campaign, as the top eight at the final race of the series meetings will make it to Brussels.

Making the final comes with a guaranteed increased income as the winner of each event will take home $30,000 Ksh3.8 million), $12,000 (Ksh1.5 million) for second place, $7,000 (Ksh905,310) for third, fourth place earning $4,000 (Ksh517,320) while fifth place will attract $2,500 (Ksh323,325).

Athletes can, however, earn up to $60,000 (Ksh7.7 million) for winning the Diamond League trophy if their events will be among those chosen as a Diamond+Discipline with second and third place in that category coming with increased earnings of $20,000 (Ksh2.6 million) and $9,000 (Ksh1.16 million) respectively.