When Will Ferdinand Omanyala Run the Men’s 100m at 2023 World Athletics Champs?

• Ferdinand Omanyala is looking to make history in the 2023 World Athletics Championships
• The Kenyan is the fastest African man ever and carries the hopes of a nation
• He will face tough competition from the Americans, who have dominated the event in the last few years

The 2023 World Athletics Championships is here. Track and field athletes from all over the world will battle for the medals in the nine-day event.

The 100m men's race will be one of the events to watch. Kenya's Ferdinand Omanyala and USA sprinters Fred Kerley and Noah Lyles will be the ones to watch as the event gets underway.

The 100m world title has been won by an American or Jamaican athlete since Kim Collins from Saint Kitts and Nevis won it in Paris in 2003.

Fred Kerley, the reigning world 100m champion, is considered the favorite but will face tough competition from the likes of Ferdinand Omanyala, Noah Lyles, Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, and Akani Simbine.

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Athletics

Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs, who has struggled with injuries, is expected to be in contention.

World lead in 2023

Kerley has a season-best of 9.88 seconds, but Hughes has the world-leading time this season. He ran 9.83 in New York on 24 June, breaking the national record in the process.

Omanyala is closely behind Hughes. He registered 9.84 seconds from the Kip Keino Classic in May and 9.85 in the Kenyan trials on 8 July, per AP.

Omanyala currently leads the world's 100m rankings. Simbine is second, Kerley third, Jamaica's Ackeem Blake fourth, and Lyles rounds up the top five.

100m schedule at Budapest

Unlike the Olympics, where track and field come in the last weeks of the event, things come thick and fast in the World Athletics championships. Omanyala is the Commonwealth Games champion and is the 9th fastest man of all time with a personal best of 9.77 seconds.

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Athletics

Day 1 on August 19th will see the 100m preliminary round. It will be followed by the heats on the same day.

The semi-final will take place on Sunday, August 20th, before a mouth-watering showdown in the final a few hours later. Kenyans can watch Omanyala in the Heats on Saturday at 8:43 pm East African time.

The semi-final will be on Sunday, August 20th, at 5:35 pm Nairobi time. The finals will be on the same day at 8:10 pm.

KBC Channel 1, DSTV, and Showmax will show the event live.

Michael Johnson backs Omanyala

Sports Brief previously reported on former Olympic and world champion Michael Johnson backing Omanyala for success ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Hungary.

Africa's fastest man will head to Budapest next month as one of the favorites in the men's 100-metre discipline, after rising rapidly through the ranks as a sprinter since 2021.

Omanyala is currently the fastest man on the continent with a blistering time of 9.77 seconds, as captured by World Athletics, and is both African and Commonwealth Champion.