A rip-roaring show is set for the National Secondary Schools Athletics Championships in Mombasa, as Nyanza’s Brian Okoth, with a 10.34-second regional win, faces Western’s Anthony Wesonga, who aims to break the 10-second mark.

Both coaches are confident in their athletes’ chances, promising an electrifying race to determine the national champion.

The Nyanza regional athletics team, en route to Mombasa, stopped over in Nairobi City, and in an interview with People Sports yesterday, Okoth’s coach, Thomas Osano, when asked about the athlete’s performance during the scheduled coastal city competition against Western region’s three rivals — Wesonga, timed 10.05 secs; Musa Juma, who clocked 10.09 secs; and Bramwel Chasala from Kakamega county, timed 9.85 secs — the tactician retorted, “Brian Okoth is the best out of all those athletes.”

Osano continued, “And his school teammate Daniel Wasike, who finished second during the Nyanza regional school games, clocking 10.56 secs, will be number two in the national race. They will run neck and neck. I am sure. Though, it is not good to underrate other athletes. But let’s wait and see.”

All four Nyanza and Western regional school games athletes have smashed Africa’s fastest 100m runner, Ferdinand Omanyala’s maiden race record time of 10.37 secs. Omanyala posted this time in Kakamega in 2015, shortly after switching from rugby to athletics while studying at the University of Nairobi (UON). He was encouraged at the time to venture into athletics by a friend.

However, the confidence in 18-year-old Form Three student Okoth’s performance in the national schools athletics 100m race, on April 10 and 11, by the athlete’s coach Osano, himself a former runner who won Kenya the 10,000m gold medal at the 1991 African Games and finished fourth in the 1987 Tokyo race, prompted a war of words as Wesonga’s tactician Bonke declared the athlete would upstage Okoth in Mombasa.

“From my analysis, I expect Wesonga to be the best. I have looked at the athlete’s statistics. The athlete has picked up pace, better than at the Western regional schools games athletics championship, and I am expecting him to run a sub 10.00 secs race in Mombasa,” Bonke vowed.

Bonke, a games teacher, said Wesonga, an 18-year-old student at Bukhalarire Secondary School in Busia County, has been training intensely back at school, adding that “during the training, I have been subjecting him to run 120 meters and Wesonga was hitting 11.5 secs. So you can imagine the time the athlete will clock in the 100m race in Mombasa.”

“The injury sustained by Wesonga in his right leg ankle before participating in the Western regional school games has now subsided, following physiotherapy management. So, I expect the athlete to run under 10 secs, since the runner is better and more stable now,” Bonke said.