Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala is not giving up yet on his dream of winning a gold medal at the World Athletics Championship after finishing seventh in the 100m final in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday.

The Commonwealth Games champion failed to sparkle at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest after America’s Noah Lyles took off with gold in 9.83 seconds, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo finished second in 9.88 while Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes completed the podium also in 9.88.

All eyes were on Omanyala after his recent impressive performances across Europe including in the Diamond League but speaking after the heartbreak, the Kenyan sprinter, who was timed at 10.07 in the final, assured his fans to keep the trust, not to be disappointed since his dream of winning the race is still alive and on.

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“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,” said Omanyala.

Omanyala made it to the first-ever final as the fastest loser after finishing third in his semi-final heat, and asked whether the wait to know if he will make it to the final had affected him mentally, he 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.”

“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 it.

This was the first time ever for Omanyala to qualify for the final of the World Championships.