In response to a question about his fantastical performance at the current World Championships, Daniel Simiu said, “I got a call in the morning from my girlfriend urging me to put my best foot forward, and I didn’t take it for granted.”
Simiu also discussed Charles Kamathi, the last person to win a gold medal for Kenya in the 10,000-meter race at the 2001 Edmonton World Championships, on Capital FM Sport in Budapest, Hungary. Charles Kamathi was the last such athlete.
Simiu ran a strategic race, finishing in 27:52.60 to get silver behind Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, who ran a season-best 27:51.42, and Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega, who finished third in 27:52.72.
“I am glad I made it to the final, but today my body was just different I don’t know what happened, because I wasn’t running like I did yesterday during the heats, I knew today will be easy, I don’t know what happened, but we will go back to the drawing board and see what happened,” Omanyala told Capital Sport in Budapest after the final.
Asked whether the tense moments of waiting to see if he had made it to the final as one of the two fastest losers, affected his mental strength, Omanyala said; “It was a tough moment for me, because of anxiety asking myself so many questions, but we thank God we made it to the finals.”
He clocked 10.07 seconds to finish a disappointing 7th in a race that was won by 200m specialist American Noah Lyles in a World Lead time of 9.83 seconds, and is aiming to defend his 200m gold, Botswana’s youngster Letsile Tebogo scooped silver in a National Record of 9.88 seconds to write history as the first African to medal in the Championships.
Briton Zharnel Hughes, who came to the race a World Leader settled for bronze in 9.88 seconds.
“It was very hard for me, we learn and move on; we can’t reverse time, it has gone it is gone. It was a good season and we thank God for that, we have finished the final without injury so we appreciate,” Omanyala, who won his first Diamond League this season, underscored.
Omanyala will take a one-month break before deciding what next after missing out on the entry of the Xiamen Diamond League in China slated for September 2.
“We have not planned anything because we couldn’t make it to enter the China Diamond League, we are just waiting to see what happens in the next one month. My dream of getting a world medal has not died, it continues. I tell Kenyans thank you for the support they shown me all through, so I want to tell them not to be disappointed because I know most of them will do, but everything happens for a reason,” Omanyala said.
It was an improvement for Omanyala after reaching the semifinals last year in Oregon.
