Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala for the second time in less than a week played second fiddle in a World Athletics Continental Silver Tour after being beaten by American Noah Lyles in the 100 metres at the ISTAF Berlin 2022 in Germany on Sunday.
The Africa and Commonwealth Games champion boasted of the fastest times on the list of sprinters, who lined up with a season best of 9.85 seconds and a personal best of 9.77 both from Kip Keino Classic.
However, Lyles, who entered the race with third fastest times this season on the entry list of 10.05 behind Omanyala (9.85) and Ivorian Arthur Cisse (10.02), stunned all to bag the crown in a new season best of 9.95.
Omanyala clocked 10.11 for second place as Jeremiah Azu of Great Britain wrapped up the podium places with 10.16 on the nine-man list.
Commonwealth Games 5,000m champion Beatrice Chebet showed her opponents a clean pair of heels in the 12 and half lap race to win in 14 minutes and 44.25 seconds. American Elly Henes with a Personal Best of 14:52.87 and another Kenyan Selah Busienei (15:10.14) completed the top-three spots as Eva Cherono finished fifth in her season best of 15:27.87.
World Under-20 1,500m champion Reynold Cheruiyot lived up to the expectations as he claimed the title in 3:35.04 followed by Britons George Mills (3:35.30) and Sam Parsons (3:36.22) who all recorded their Personal Bests.
Omanyala, who settled for second during the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern in Switzerland on August 30, now heads to the World Athletics Continental Gold Tour, the Memorial Borisa Hanžekovića on September 9 to 11 at Sports Park Mladost, Zagreb, Croatia. BY DAILY NATION