African 100 metres record holder Ferdinand Omanyala warmed up for the Absa Kip Keino Classic with yet another African record in the 150m at the Atlanta City Games, Georgia, United States of America on Sunday morning.
Omanyala finished third in 14.89 seconds, behind the race winner and home athlete Noah Lyles in 14.56 as Erriyon Knighton came second in 14.85.
Omanyala, the Commonwealth Games and Africa 100m champion, was way ahead at the 100m mark before Lyles, who is the reigning two-time World 200m champion, stepped up with a sizzling show.
Omanyala bettered Namibian Frankie Fredericks’ mark of 14.99 and set a new African record, adding to his African 100m record of 9.77 attained at the 2020 Kip Keino Classic.
Fredricks set the 150m (bend) record during the 1993 World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany when winning the 200m title in a championship record time of 19.85.
The victory by Lyles, who is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games 200m bronze medallist, saw him become the third-fastest athlete of all time over the distance behind Jamaican Usain Bolt and compatriot Tyson Gay.
The victory was a clear warning by Lyles to his rivals ahead of his 200m title defence at the World Athletics Championships scheduled for August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary.
However, the 150m is not a World Athletics-recognised event. Omanyala is due to defend his Kip Keino Classic title on Saturday at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
Meanwhile, the 2014 World Indoor 800m silver medallist Angelika Cichocka from Poland is the first foreign athlete to arrive for the Kip Keino Classic.
“I really don’t want to keep my hopes high, this being my second race of the season,” said Cichocka, who will be competing in the 1,500m at the Kip Keino Classic.
Cichocka finished 13 in the 1,500m at Doha Diamond League on Friday, a race won by Kenya’s Olympic and world 1,500m champion, Faith Chepng’etich.
