Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala and Olympics 100m champion Noah Lyles are out of the running for the nearly Ksh4 million Diamond League final prize.
Omanyala and Lyles have run fewer Diamond League races this season as they focused on the Olympics and it has come at a cost as they will play no further part in the Diamond League Final.
It was already closed for Lyles when he said the 200m final at the Paris Olympics was his last event this year but unlike the American, who won gold and bronze at the Games, Omanyala sought to make amends after his semi-final exit at the Olympics.
However, it has ended on sour note for him as he missed out on a chance to make it into the top eight following his seventh place finish in Rome on Friday.
The Diamond League consist of 15 meets in different countries throughout the course of the year. The one-day meets see athletes compete in various disciplines in 14 cities from May to September, with the top performers qualifying for the final.
In each of the first 14 meetings, the top eight athletes are awarded points based on their finishing position. Number one gets eight points, number two gets seven, third six points and it goes like that up to the eighth athlete, who earns one point.
For the final, the top six in the field events, the top eight in the 100m, 200m, 400m, and 800m, and the top ten in the 1,500m and long-distance events are chosen after the points tally from the 14 events is accumulated.
After the Rome meeting, Omanyala is 12th on the 100m standings with nine points, one ahead of Lyles, after his second place at the Prefontaine and seventh placing in Rome.
It leaves him out of the running with Christian Coleman (30 points), Eseme Emmanuel (27), Ackeem Blake (24), Akani Simbine (23), Fred Kerley (19), Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, Brandon Hicklin and Rohan Watson, all on 15 points, closing the top eight.
Omanyala will therefore watch from home as his rivals compete for the $30,000 (Ksh3,870,000) prize and the Diamond League Trophy after finishing third in last year’s final.
Diamond League Trophy winners are awarded $30,000, plus a trophy, with, $12,000 (Ksh1,548,000), $7,000 (Ksh903,000), $4,000 (Ksh516,000), $2,500 (Ksh322,500), $2,000 (Ksh258,000), $1,500 (Ksh193,500) and $1,000 (Ksh129,000) going to those who finish between second and eighth.
This season’s final will take place in Brussels from September 13-14 at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme, returning to the Belgian capital since 2019.
