Africa champion Ferdinand Omanyala faces a moment of reckoning when he takes on Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs in the semi-finals of the 100 metres at the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field, Oregon, United States.
Also in the third and last heat of the semi-final that goes down Sunday at 4.14am is junior sensation Letsile Tebogo from Botswana, American Marvin Bracy and Canadian Arron Brown.
The 2011 world champion Yohan Blake from Jamaican, American Trayvon Bromell and South African Akani Simbine battle in the first heat at 4am with hot favourite Olympic 200m silver medallist Fred Kerley going in the second semi-final at 4.07am.
Kerley faces defending champion Christian Coleman and 2015 World champion Andre de Grasse from Canada among others in the heat.
Omanyala overcame jet lag and a long journey to qualify for the semi-finals despite finishing third in the last heat of the 100m won by Japan’s Sani Brown in 9.98 seconds.
Omanyala clocked a modest 10.10 seconds behind New Zealand’s Edward Osei-Nketia, who cracked a National Record time of 10.08, as Brown triumphed.
Omanyala had arrived in Oregon less than three hours to his race after a delayed Visa forced him to leave the country Thursday night for the championships.
Omanyala, the third fastest man this year in 9.85 sec, left the country on Thursday at 6pm for a five-hour flight to Doha before embarking on his longest ever journey of 17 hours to Seattle, United States.
The Africa 100m record holder would then board another one-and-half hours flight to Eugene where he arrived at 2.30am ready for the heats that got underway at 4.50am.
“We expected him to face some fatigue, which was evident in the last 40m. I hope he gets a good physiotherapist on that side because those in Team Kenya failed to travel,” said Omanyala’s coach Duncan Ayiemba.
The seven heats produced seven sub-10 sec performances in addition to the world junior record by Tebogo.
Coleman controlled the pace to win the sixth heat in 10.08 sec, with de Grasse, the Olympic 200m champion, coming second. Brazil’s Eric Cardoso (10.18 sec) was third to ensure he makes the semis.
Kerley, the fastest man this year in 9.76s ec, which is also his personal best, brought the roof down with a blistering 9.79 sec in the second heat as Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes was second in 9.97sec.
Bracy won the first heat in 10.05, Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake was second in 10.15sec while Nigeria’s Raymond Okevwo was third in 10.17 sec.
Bromell, the second fastest man in the world this year in 9.81 sec but has personal best 9.76 sec, also secured safe passage to the semis in front of his home fans with a 9.89sec performance in the third heat.
Cote d’Ivoire’s Arthur Cisse (10.5 sec) and Brazil’s Rodrigo do Nascimento (10.11 sec) took the other two automatic places to the semis.
Marcell Jacobs also made it to the semis with a second place finish in 10.04 sec in the fourth heat behind Jamaica’s Oblique Seville in 9.93sec.
Blake, who is Omanyala’s role model, was second in the fifth heat in 10.04 sec behind Tebogo, 19, who set a new world junior record of 9.94sec.
Canada’s Aaron Brown was third in 10.06 sec, leaving Simbine, the former African champion, Simbine to qualify as one of the non-automatic qualifiers. BY DAILY NATION