Ferdinand Omanyala: Why Africa's Fastest Man Has Left Coach Geoffrey Kimani to Reunite with Duncan Ayiemba

Africa’s fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala, has gone back to his former coach, Duncan Ayiemba, after two years.

Ferdinand Omanyala has struggled to make a mark on the global stage, with this season not being an exception. He started the season with races in South Africa before heading to the Botswana Golden Grand Prix, where he finished second behind Akani Simbine.

Ferdinand Omanyala then made his Diamond League debut in Xiamen, finishing second, before heading to Keqiao and later the World Athletics Relays.

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The reigning Commonwealth Games champion then competed at the Adidas Atlanta City Games and had a series of competitions before withdrawing from the Diamond League Meeting final in Zurich due to an injury.

Ferdinand Omanyala failed to live up to the billing at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, as he exited the championship in the semifinal of the men’s 100m.

As reported by Nation Sport, Ferdinand Omanyala has since ditched his coach of two years, Geoffrey Kimani, and gone back to his longtime coach, Duncan Ayiemba.

Ferdinand Omanyala explained that he had a hard time adapting to the ways of Geoffrey Kimani, the main reason behind his decision to go back to Duncan Ayiemba, who guided him to an African record time of 9.77 seconds at the 2021 Kip Keino Classic.

“It’s every sportsman’s and woman’s dream to get better, and that journey will always see them change teams or coaches so as to achieve excellent results. One will either achieve their targets or not, and that is sports,” Ferdinand Omanyala said.

Opening up about his injury before the World Athletics Championships, Ferdinand Omanyala revealed that he was unable to compete, but the doctors did all they could and enabled him to line up for the heats and semifinal.

He revealed that it was frustrating not to run under 10 seconds the whole season, but insisted that he will bounce back stronger next season.

“I wasn’t able to run when I arrived in Team Kenya camp, but that dedicated team of doctors worked magic,” Ferdinand Omanyala added.

“It was disappointing not to go under 10 seconds with that hip injury making things even worse. You can’t have control of everything, you just have to let some flow and flow with the rhyme.”

On his part, Duncan Ayiemba expressed his excitement to have Ferdinand Omanyala back, noting that he left the door open.

“I will always welcome Omanyala back any time, and our focus will remain the same…getting to the best place ever. I will meet him when he is ready to roll back our plan,” he opined.

Ferdinand Omanyala is now focusing on recovering before getting back to training ahead of another busy season, and this time around, under the guidance of a familiar coach, Duncan Ayiemba.