It was a dark, wet, and thoroughly miserable night for Team Kenya at the Scotstoun Stadium on Tuesday evening, as reigning 100m Commonwealth champion Ferdinand Omanyala suffered a shocking semi-final exit, prematurely ending his dream of successfully defending his title.
Omanyala, who arrived at the Games boasting a brilliant season, was considered a guaranteed medal contender for Kenya. However, the African record holder left fans stunned after finishing a distant sixth in the second 100m semi-final with a time of 10.19 seconds.
Reflecting on his disappointing exit in the mixed zone, a visibly crestfallen Omanyala conceded that his body simply failed to deliver on the wet Scottish track.
“Let’s just say the body refused to fire, so there’s nothing much I can do about it,” Omanyala admitted. “I’m not a good person to run in the rain. It just happened, so we have to process that. You just need to go back and let it sink in.”
Despite the setback, Omanyala took solace in the continent’s rising dominance in sprinting, acknowledging the stiff competition coming from fellow African athletes.
“I am happy with the growth of sprinting in Africa. It’s a good thing, building the next generation. We started it, and I’m happy that it’s coming up,” Omanyala noted, before adding on his broader campaign: “This season was a season of restoration. Commonwealth was one of the goals we were chasing, but we’ve missed it. Today didn’t go well—I’m not a good person to run under the rain, so that really affected me.”
Omanyala’s exit capped off a grim evening for Kenya’s sprint delegation. Minutes earlier in the first 100m semi-final, Meshack Babu finished last in a time of 10.39 seconds. That heat was dominated by Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme, who stormed to victory in a national record time of 9.89 seconds before going on to claim gold.
Heartbreak in the 10,000M final
Kenya’s woes extended to the long-distance events, where the nation failed to secure a single medal on the day.
In the men’s 10,000m final, 30-year-old Edwin Kurgat clocked a commendable season-best time of 27:50.98 but was forced to settle for a agonizing fourth place. As the bell rang for the final lap, Kurgat appeared poised to claim a silver medal. However, India’s Gulveer Singh and Isle of Man’s David Mullarkeyspoiled the Kenyan celebration, surging past Kurgat with under 200 meters remaining in a thrilling sprint finish.
Australia’s Ky Robinson clinched gold in 27:48.93, while Singh captured silver (27:49.78) and Mullarkey secured bronze (27:50.28).
“The race was just ok, although we had a few unexpected setbacks, like we never expected that it would be this rainy,”Kurgat explained after the race. “I was also stepped on and had to stop and wear my spikes, then struggled to get back into the race and catch up with the rest.”
Meanwhile, Daniel Ebenyo, who had dictated the pace at the front of the pack for much of the distance, ran out of steam in the final two laps. Ebenyo faded to a sixth-place finish, recording a season-best time of 27:56.35.
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