Sad! Visa delay might crash Omanyala's record dream

Omanyala joins growing list of Kenyans who've had their visas delayed

 • Reigning Africa's fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala has been left sad and confused after failing to travel to Oregon, USA yet for the 2022 Athletics Championships due to Visa delays.


 • The Championships are due on Friday 15th July the same day when Omanyala is expected to compete in the 100 meters preliminary round.

African 100m record holder
Ferdinand Omanyala is the current African 100m record holder
Image: courtesy

Reigning Africa's fastest man, Ferdinand Omanyala has been left sad and confused after failing to travel to Oregon, USA yet for the 2022 Athletics Championships due to Visa delays.

The Championships are due on Friday 15th July the same day when Omanyala is expected to compete in the 100 meters preliminary round.

Taking to his Instagram page, the sprint king wrote, "Sad that I haven't traveled Oregon yet and 100 M is in 2 days. Visa delays!!! "

Ferdinand Omanyala might miss the 2022 World Athletics Championships
100M athllete Ferdinand Omanyala might miss the 2022 World Athletics Championships

Should he fail to travel in time, this will crash his dream of either drawing closer or even breaking Usain Bolt's record which he openly said he was targeting.

In a recent interview, Omanyala said he believes he is faster than the now-retired multiple Olympic Gold medalist even though he is aiming to beat his world record.

"Sahii ni noma ali retire haniwezi right now we are targeting his world record (9.58 seconds) but my target is to clock 9.6 seconds then 9.5 seconds eventually and we drawing closer to the Olympic record which is 9.63 seconds," said Omanyala.

But how does he feel being Africa's fastest man?

"I feel great because it means we are working hard and what we are training for is working as well, so it feels nice to be the fastest man in Africa and we continue to scale the ladder."

Omanyala revealed he trains for 9 hours a day but for now, he is doing one session a day and mostly resting because he treats athletics as a job and wouldn't want to ruin his body.

"We have the world championships coming up so that's the main target we are aiming for now, and the commonwealth games after that so and that will be the end of the season for this year." He said.

Omanyala is not the only Kenyan who has recently complained over delayed Visa. Sauti Sol were forced to cancel a few of their shows in Europe.

They explained that the visa application process has been affected greatly by the ongoing Ukraine War, hence the reason why they cannot make it for the various Europe tour dates.

Human rights activist, Boniface Mwangi recently went on a tirade on Twitter ranting over the increasing number of visa denials by various embassies.

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