Ferdinand Omanyala’s former coach believes his decision to change coaches in 2024 was a costly mistake.
Ferdinand Omanyala’s former coach Duncan Ayiemba has explained why the sprinter made a wrong decision when changing coaches.
Ayiemba explained that being an Olympic year, it is always critical to make life-changing decisions like switching coaches and hinted that might have been one of the reasons why he failed to live up to expectations at the Paris Olympic Games.
Ferdinand Omanyala changed coaches immediately after the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary and Ayiemba believes that the move could not yield the results immediately.
He explained that it takes time for an athlete to get used to a different training approach and by the time he went to the Olympic Games, he had not fully adapted to the training.
At the Olympics, Ferdinand Omanyala finished eighth in the semifinal of the 100m, a position that was not enough to grant him a slot in the final.
“His timing was wrong, that’s the first thing, you can’t do coaching changes in an Olympic year,” Ayiemba said in an interview with Athletics TV.
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“The Olympics is the penultimate game, that’s where you need to put your engines and your house together, there’s nothing like trial and error. You can’t go and try something you’ve not done.”
Although he acknowledged Ferdinand Omanyala as an exceptional talent, he was surprised that the Kenyan ended the season as the second fastest man in the world but could not perform at the Olympic Games.
He added that Omanyala downplays himself most of the time, revealing that if he was still coaching him, he would not allow the Commonwealth Games champion to compete in the men’s 100m invitational at the Diamond League Meeting final in Brussels.
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Ferdinand Omanyala had not gathered enough points to compete in the final and was entered in the invitational event where he won the race in 10.07 seconds.
“For Ferdy, he wasn’t underperforming, because running 9.8’s consistently which is very good,” Ayiemba said.
“For you to be number two in the world and go and underperform in a championship, there is something wrong. If I was the one, I couldn’t allow him to run that race because he is a big name.”
This season, Ferdinand Omanyala has started off by making significant changes including skipping the indoor races hoping that it would help him make more impact in the outdoor events including the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
