Sharjah24 - AFP: Africa's fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala is on a mission to show Kenyan runners can shine in sprints.
The 26-year-old heads to the World Athletics Championships aiming to put sprinting on the map in a country where the long-distance runner is king.
Omanyala wears two wristbands on his right arm: one, made of black and green beads, bears the numbers 9:85, his season-best 100m time set in May.
The other, a bracelet crafted from leather and metal, is inscribed with 9:77, the African record he set last September. It made him the ninth fastest man ever, behind four Americans and three Jamaicans.
He will arrive in Eugene, Oregon, where the 100m heats start on the opening morning on July 15, as the third quickest man in the world this season behind the Americans Fred Kerley and Trayvon Bromell.
Making the podium would be an historic first for an African.
Namibia's Frankie Fredericks twice won Olympic silver in the 100m in the 1990s, but his one gold and three silvers in the World Championships were all over 200m.
Omanyala said he has set his sights on at least reaching the final on July 16.
"I'm targeting 9.6," he told AFP in an interview during a training session at the main stadium in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
"That will be my biggest achievement. And of course, I am going for the win."
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