NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 19 – Having once beaten him in a 200m race during one of the Athletics Kenya national meets, junior sprinter Sylvester Simiyu hopes he can emulate 100m national record holder Ferdinand Omanyala and also scale similar heights up to the Olympic Games.
Omanyala twice broke the national record in Tokyo and last week became the first Kenyan to run under 10secs when he clocked 9.86secs in a race in Austria.
And now, Simiyu who competed at the World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi on Wednesday hopes he can also follow in his footsteps and become a sprint household name in the country.
“He inspires me a lot because of you look at how he has been running, there has been some quick, steady improvement. Within two weeks, he has been able to cut off a significant figure from his PB. I also feel motivated to follow in his footsteps,” said Simiyu.
“I know if I keep working hard and I keep my focus, get the right training equipment from the gym to the track, then I will be in a good way and I can run sub 10 as well one of these days,” added the 17-year old.
Despite not making it into the semi-finals of the 100m, the youngster set a new Personal best time after clocking 10.66secs in finishing fifth in his heat, just missing out on non-automatic qualification by a whisker.
Kenya’s Sylvester Simiyu competes in the 100m race at the World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi. PHOTO/Raymond Makhaya
“I am very happy with my performance even if I have not qualified. I came into this Championship with a PB of 10.88 and now lowering that further is a good thing for me. It shows that if I keep working I can run even faster,” he adds.
For now, his focus will be on trying to get into Kenya’s team for next year’s Commonwealth Games as well as the Senior World Championships.
“I will work towards that now and hopefully I can attain qualification time. I still have a lot to do and there is time on my side. So I will get bac to training and focus to get my reaction time and final kick up there with the best,” he added.
Simiyu has also hinted that he wants to try and double in both the 100m and 200m.
