African 100m record holder Ferdinard Omanyala feels he has made huge progress since he switched coaches last year, adding that he has developed ‘a good attitude towards training’.
The Commonwealth Games 100m champion chose to work with Geoffrey Kimani, a renowned sprints coach, whom he credits for tremendous strides in training.
“The last two seasons I have been going so high and too early in the season, and I could not maintain that towards the end of the season and that has been affecting me.
“I believe that I am not here for a long time as far as my talent is concerned, so if I am not going to maximize on the time and opportunities that I have now then I will lose it at some point. That’s why I had to change my training program heading into the busy season which also has the Olympic Games,” said Omanyala in an interview with a local TV station.
Kimani, strength and conditioning coach, who reunited with the sprint sensation at the end of last season after the athlete spent several years under the watchful eye of Duncan Ayiemba, said the training program had borne fruits.
“I had to call his former coach and inform him that the athlete had contacted me and shown interest in working with me. That is what ethics demand of me and so far I can say we have made big strides towards making Omanyala a world beater in the coming races.”
Kimani, who is also a strength and conditioning consultant for the National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK), added that the current program would catapult Omanyala to reach his potential.
“First, he needed to lose some weight as he was running a bit heavy and we’ve gone from 90kgs to 86kgs. The program that he was in was geared towards adding more muscle but you can still be strong without having those big muscles.
Omanyala is set to lead a Kenya contingent of 13 athletes to this year’s World Indoor Athletics Championships set for March 1-3 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Last week, he smashed the national 60m indoor record after running 6.51 seconds at the Meeting de Paris in France and lowered his own record of 6.52 seconds he set only 10 days before in Miramas.
