Kenyan sprinter Ferdinand Omanyala, who is now ranked ninth in the world in 100m, has secured more sponsorship from betting company Odibets.
Odibets Country marketing manager Aggrey Sayi has presented a sponsorship cheque of Sh1.5m to Omanyala to assist him in his preparations for a possible appearance at the World Challenge and Diamond League races this year.
Odibet had a month ago also presented Omanyala with Sh500,000 to help him prepare for the Betking Making of Champions (MoC) Grand Prix held three weeks ago at Yabatech Sports Complex in Lagos, Nigeria.
Omanyala went on to set a new national 100m record when he won his semi-final race in 10.01 seconds during the Nigerian event on March 30, erasing Mark Otieno’s previous time of 10.14.
The feat also saw Omanyala surpass the Tokyo Olympic Games qualifying mark of 10.05.
However, Athletics Kenya have since declined to ratify the time as a national record indicating that the event in Nigeria was not sanctioned.
However, the organisers of MoC stated that they’ve been partners with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria since the first edition of the event in 2018.
Omanyala can’t represent Kenya at the Olympics after the government and AK had previously declared that no athletes who had served a doping ban would don the national colours.
Despite not ratifying Omanyala’s time, World Athletics has ranked him ninth overall in the world behind Americans Ronnie Baker and Martin Jo’Vaughn, who have seasons leads of 9.94.
Ghanaian Benjamin Azamati-Kwaku and another American Kyree King follow on 9.97 followed by 2017 World 100m champion Justin Gatlin from USA on 9.98, South African Africa Akan Simbine and André De Grasse from Canada all on 9.99.
Antigua’s Cejhae Greene is eighth on 10.00 followed by Omanyala, who was all smiles after he received the sponsorship cheque from Sayi on Monday.
“I feel good that Odibets came in to support me. It gives me hope for a brighter future,” said Omanyala, who still has high hopes that AK and the government will allow him compete at the Olympics.
Sayi said that his company decided to support Omanyala owing to his hard work and talent that is evident from his recent performances.
“His brilliant performances over the past few months has seen him hit the Olympic qualifying time,” said Sayi, who wished Omanyala best of luck in his forthcoming races.