African record-holder Ferdinand Omanyala reclaimed his men’s 100m at the Kip Keino Classic 2026 with a dominant display on Friday (24 April).
The sprinter had local fans on their feet as he recovered from a crawling start to finish in style with a season-best 9.96 seconds.
Posting his second sub-10-second time of the season, Omanyala signalled that he has revived some lost form following a lacklustre 2025 season.
The final track event of the evening was a stop-start affair with the race getting underway on the third attempt.
South Africa’s Gift Leotlela, who finished fifth in the 100m final at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, was shown a red card for a false start.
Once the starting gun fired and Omanyala found his groove, there was no stopping the speeding Kenyan as he raised his arm in triumph.
Omanyala finished well ahead of South Africa’s Rivaldo Roberts (10.12) with Canadian veteran Aaron Brown crossing the line in third place in 10.15.
The Kenyan has dominated the 100m event at the Kip Keino Classic since it was first held in 2020, with victories in 2022, 2023, and now his third this year. He set the African record of 9.77 at the 2021 edition with a second-place finish behind Trayvon Bromell.
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read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/athletics-kenya-ferdinand-omanyala-100m-kip-keino-classic-2026
