Omanyala, Moraa to make Diamond League debuts in Brussels

National 100m record holder Ferdinand Omanyala will be making his debut at the Diamond League series at the penultimate meeting to be held on Friday in Brussels, Belgium.

The 45th edition of the Memorial Van Damme is 12 th leg of this year’s Diamond League series and will usher the finals slated for September 8-9 in Zurich, Switzerland.

The in-form Omanyala became the first Kenyan to compete in 100m at the Olympic Games where he sailed to the semi finals stage at the Tokyo Games last month.

In Tokyo, Omanyala smashed his own national record twice where he notched an impressive 10.00 seconds at the semi finals to miss the finals by the narrowest of margins.

Just over two weeks ago, the sprint sensation became the first Kenyan to dip under 10 seconds when he ran a new national record and personal best of 9.86 seconds in a race held in Austria.

In Brussels, Omanyala will face off with a strong field led by Olympic 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley of USA who has a personal best of 9.84 seconds and Africa record holder over the distance Akani Simbine of South Africa who also has a PB of 9.84 seconds.

The 2015 world bronze medallist Trayvon Bromell of the US is the fastest man in the field with a PB of 9.77 seconds.

On the same breadth, Kenya’s Mary Moraa will also make her maiden appearance at the annual series of elite track and field athletics.

Moraa, who made the switch from 400m to 800m, will test herself against global stars once again after reaching the semi-finals stage at the Tokyo Games.

The 21-year-old warmed for the race with a victory at a World Continental Tour silver meeting held in Rovereto, Italy on Tuesday where she clocked 2:00.07

She will be up against some seven women led by the reigning world champion Halima Nakaayi of Uganda.

In the absence of world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, Olympians Abel Kipsang and Charles Simotwo will lead Kenya’s charge in the men’s 1500m.

Reigning world champion and Olympic silver medallist Hellen Obiri leads a strong Kenyan contingent in the women’s 5000m including world silver medallist Margaret Chelimo, former world junior champion Beatrice Chebet, Eva Cherono, Lilian Kasait and Daisy Cherono.

The Kenyans will be up against the likes of Burundi’s Francine who is fast laying down her marker in distance races.