African 100 metres record holder Ferdinand Omanyala faced a tough test against some of the world’s fastest sprinters at the Rome Diamond League meeting in Italy, finishing eighth as Olympic champion Noah Lyles stormed to victory.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games champion clocked 10.11 seconds in a race that featured some of the biggest names in world sprinting.
American sprint star Noah Lyles, the reigning Olympic 100 metres champion, lived up to expectations by powering to victory in 9.88 seconds.
Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme finished second in 9.94 seconds, just six hundredths of a second behind Lyles, while Botswana’s Olympic 200 metres champion Letsile Tebogo continued his impressive season with a third-place finish in a season’s best time of 9.95 seconds.
Despite missing out on a podium place, Omanyala’s appearance in Rome forms part of his preparations for the major championships later this season as he continues to test himself against the world’s elite sprinters on the Diamond League circuit.
Margaret Akidor was eighth in the women’s 5000m as Caroline Nyaga finished 12th.Africa champion Julius Yego was placed 7th in the Javelin throw with a best of 79.89 m.
