Omanyala defends decision not to race IshowSpeed
By Babu Tendu, January 20, 2026Africa’s fastest sprinter, Ferdinand Omanyala, has stood firm as to why he did not consider racing famous streamer IShowSpeed during his tour in Kenya.
In a video that went viral on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, Omanyala, who was addressing students at an international school, stated that too much was at risk and that it did not make sense for him to race for likes and streams.
He said that it required a lot of investment of both his time and energy for that race to be possible, and as a professional, it did not fit into his calendar of events.
Imagine an injury
He added that in case something terrible were to happen, like the possibility of getting injured, he would have found it very difficult to convince both his sponsors and management that it made sense for him to take a promotional race.
“Its entertainment for you, but for me it is an input. I need to prepare for that for like an hour, and I need to stop my training for like 3 days. What happens if I go and race him, and God forbid, I get an injury?
How am I going to explain to my management or my sponsors that I was racing IShowSpeed? To make it worse, we have competitions that have been scheduled for this week. How are we going to cancel those flights, and everything has already been paid for?” Omanyala stated.
Omanyala explained that at the level he is with his career, he would not allow anyone to come and play pranks with his profession.
“I want to teach you one thing today, once you get to a level where you are doing your job, nobody can come to your office and start doing pranks on you. You are doing what you do because you earned that place.”
He asked the students to acknowledge the value they hold, for it was their most important asset.
“I have built the Omanyala brand to become whatever it is right now, and it is soo big that when I get into articles on news, everybody wants to read about Omanyala.”