Ferdinand Omanyala will compete in his first ever final at a world championship after securing qualification by the finest of margins during Sunday’s semis in Budapest, Hungary.
The Commonwealth champion finished outside the top two automatic qualification slots in Heat One, leaving his fate to be decided by the events of the heats that followed.
Only the top two in each of the three semi-finals plus the next two fastest advanced to the final, and Omanyala just about made the cut as he advanced with the last available slot
His qualification came at a brutal cost for the reigning world champion Fred Kerley who went out in the biggest shock at the world championships so far.
So did the rusty Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs who could only manage 10.05sec to finish fifth in the same heat as Omanyala, won by American Noah Lyles in 9.87 in Budapest.
In a loaded field, Jacobs trailed in behind Lyles, second-placed Abdul Hakim Sani Brown of Japan and Omanyala third.
Kerley then finished third in his semi-final in 10.02sec behind Jamaica’s Oblique Seville and Botswanan Letsile Tebogo.
Much of the run-up to the world championships had centred on a potential match-up between Kerley and Jacobs.
Jacobs beat the American to Olympic gold in Tokyo in a European record of 9.80 two years ago, but the pair have not met on the track since.
Kerley claimed gold in Eugene last year after Jacobs pulled out of his semi-final with an injury.
