NAIROBI (Commonwealth Union) – One would think that if you can make enough money by doing what you love then education is not really a necessity. But you could not be more wrong when you come to this kind of thinking.
The reason for this is that the Commonwealth games 100-meter champion and gold medalist and record holder Ferdinand Omanyala has come out and is advising younger athletes to make time and follow education to its highest levels. Omanyala is doing this because he says that it was education that got his to where he was today. If he had not followed higher education, he would never have been able to compete in the commonwealth games let alone be a record holder of Africa.
He has openly told the media that it was his higher education that helped him with opportunities to pursue his sporting career. He continued to say that if his parents had not made it a point to make sure he attended the school in the village and make sure he got good enough grades to qualify him for a scholarship which enabled him to attended better schools in the city that he too would have rotted in his village with no proper future.
In press conference he told national as well as international media: “Education is what has brought me this far. If I hadn’t joined the University of Nairobi then, perhaps, I couldn’t be here today. I came to Nairobi because of education, Talent and education go hand in hand. So, I want to urge the junior athletes to make good use of their education and let their studies come first and then use it to build their careers in track.”
This comment helped as there were general beliefs that athletes don’t necessarily make it in the education system and that school take on these young men and women for the glory of a win. But Omanyala proved this theory wrong as he graduated well in his batch and then pursued his dream of running for his country.
