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Ferdinand Omanyala: Africa’s Fastest Man Cries Foul Over New Qualifying Standards Set by World Athletics

  • Ferdinand Omanyala has complained about the new strict qualifying standards set by World Athletics for next year’s championships in Budapest .
  • World Athletics announced new times for all the disciplines and Omanyala is now worried that not many people will be able to achieve the 10 seconds mark set
  • Omanyala’s personal best time is 9.77 seconds which made him the African record holder

Africa’s fastest man and record holder Ferdinand Omanyala has questioned the new qualifying standards set by the World Athletics for Budapest 2023. Budapest will host the next edition of the World Athletics Championships next year after a successful edition in Oregon, USA.

The world governing body for Athletics stoked controversy when it revised the qualification times athletes need to meet to qualify for the event. The qualification times were reduced in every event except in the 400 metres men and 800 metres women, where the times were revised upwards.

This means that athletes will now have to dig deeper to qualify for the Budapest games. Nation Sports reports that Omanyala isn’t intrigued by the new rules. This year, we have only 25 going under 10 seconds, and 11 are Americans. That means the rest of the world has to put in the work. That means that Athletics Kenya has to put in more electronic races for our athletes to have a chance of qualifying. Omanyala’s discipline of 100 metres has been reduced from 10.05 seconds to 10 seconds. Omanyala will be hoping for a greater showing in Budapest after off-field issues curtailed his efforts to challenge for the world title in Oregon.

A subpar 10 performance for every athlete going to Budapest will definitely increase the competitiveness of the field, with Usain Bolt’s record of 9.58 seconds still intact. Fred Kerley is the reigning world champion after clocking 9.86 seconds.

Source:https://sportsbrief.com/