{"id":32271,"date":"2021-07-26T15:36:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T15:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?p=32271"},"modified":"2021-07-26T13:19:05","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T13:19:05","slug":"kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan sprinters looking to change perceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Kenya<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Two Kenyan 100 metre runners breaking new ground at the Tokyo Olympics are hoping to change perceptions that the country, known for its dominance in middle and long-distance running, cannot challenge for medals in the sprints.<\/p>\n

Ferdinand Omanyala and Mark Otieno believe they can spring a surprise in a race that is the most open for many years after the retirement of Usain Bolt.<\/p>\n

Kenya\u2019s distance pedigree is second to none but this will be the first time the country has competitors in the 100metres, according to Bernard Ouma, a coach with Team Kenya.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the people in the world don\u2019t believe that Kenyans can sprint, but we are changing that slowly,\u201d said Omanyala, who holds the national record with 10.01s and qualified at the Kenyan Olympic trials last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not only for the Jamaicans and the USA, they are not made of steel, they don\u2019t use petrol. It\u2019s just in the mind. Change the mind and everything changes,\u201d he added. Omanyala\u2019s route to Tokyo has not been a smooth one, however.<\/p>\n

He served a 14-month doping ban from the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya imposed in 2017 and had to fight the country\u2019s officials to overcome their rules prohibiting Olympic selection of doped athletes.<\/p>\n

Otieno, who has a best of 10.05, is also convinced the time is ripe to crash the Jamaica-US party. \u201cRight now you can\u2019t count on who is going to take the race, you might surprise people next week, because anything can happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Otieno said he plans to approach the race tackling each step at a time. \u201cI am looking forward to reaching the final and to seeing who is going to take the medals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For his part, Omanyala hopes to break 10 seconds at the Games. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what kind of sub-10 it will be – 9.60, 9.50, I will receive it,\u201d he said. Bolt\u2019s world record stands at 9.58.<\/p>\n

Otieno said he looked up to American Trayvon Bromell as an inspiration and admired how he was able to recover from injury and work his way back into Olympic contention.<\/p>\n

Bromell produced the fastest time of 9.77s this year and is favourite for gold but Omanyala says the race is anybody\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t fear anybody,\u201d he said. \u201cI am going to that race knowing that I am also the same as these guys, we have all qualified,\u201d he said. \u201cI can win it, why not?.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. Two Kenyan 100 metre runners breaking new ground at the Tokyo Olympics are hoping to change perceptions that the country, known for its dominance in middle and long-distance running, cannot challenge for medals in the sprints. Ferdinand Omanyala and Mark Otieno believe they can spring a surprise in a race that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":32270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[6857,7003,544],"class_list":["post-32271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-kenya","tag-kenya"],"yoast_head":"\nKenyan sprinters looking to change perceptions - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two Kenyan 100 metre runners breaking new ground at the Tokyo Olympics are hoping to change perceptions that the country ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kenyan sprinters looking to change perceptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two Kenyan 100 metre runners breaking new ground at the Tokyo Olympics are hoping to change perceptions that the country ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-26T15:36:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/07\/img-60feb63102a36.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1008\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kenyan sprinters looking to change perceptions\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-26T15:36:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions\"},\"wordCount\":420,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/07\/img-60feb63102a36.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Kenya\",\"Kenya\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/kenyan-sprinters-looking-to-change-perceptions\",\"name\":\"Kenyan sprinters looking to change perceptions - 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