Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala’s victory in men’s 100 metres at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix has been quashed.
Omanyala, who had cracked a world lead time of 9.78 seconds at the National Stadium, Gaborone on Saturday was disqualified for lane infringement.
Omanyala is seen stepping on the lane on his right towards the finish line while trying to glance at home athlete Letsile Tebogo, who had finished second in 9.91.
Omanyala, who is also Commonwealth Games champion, took off the blocks swiftly, leading all the way to win and miss his own Africa and national record by 0.01 seconds.
Tebogo now gets to win the race, beating world 200m silver medallist Kenneth Bednarek from the United States of America (USA) to second place in 10.02 as Canadian Aaron Brown settled third in 10.08.
However, Omanyala overcame the disappointment to anchor his team of Samuel Imeta, Hesbon Ochieng and Steven Onyango to victory in the 4x100m relay in 38.26 seconds.
They beat Namibia and Botswana to second and third places in 39.46 and 39.55 respectively.
Imeta had earlier won his 100m “B” race in personal best 10.10.
Kenya now moves to number 12 in world ranking in a time of 38.26 behind the Netherlands in a time of 38.25.
The country can only hope that they don’t wade off the top 16 places so as to qualify for the World Athletics Championships scheduled for August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary.
The top eight teams at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA and 16 ranked countries by July 31 this year will qualify for the Budapest event.
