Omanyala responds to reports that he did some workout on the plane before his 100m heats

Omanyala arrived in Oregon three hours before the heats due to issues with his Visa

Africa's fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala was able to compete in the World Athletics Championships on Saturday morning after boarding three flights totaling more than 20 hours to get to Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Omanyala, who did not obtain his US visa until Thursday morning in Kenya, faced a five-hour flight to Doha, Qatar, six-hour layover, 14-hour flight to Seattle, three-hour layover and finally, a one-hour flight to Eugene.

 He landed about three hours before the first heat on Saturday morning and was immediately ferried to Hayward Field.

He finished third in his heat 7 in 10.10 seconds advancing to the semifinals, which started early on Saturday morning 4.50am Kenyan time.

The heat was won by Japan's Sami Brown in 9:98 as New Zealand's Edward Osei Nketia clocked 10:08 to finish second .

The semis are scheduled for 4am tomorrow morning and Omanyala will be hoping to be fit for a place in the final.

After semis qualifications, Omanyala was quoted by US-sports saying: “I never knew I was tired until I ran that race.”

 He further added that he did not run up and down airplane aisles to stay loose, but acknowledged that his seat in business class helped him doze.

 “I don’t think I could have done that in economy,” he added.

The 26 year-old also took to his official Instagram account to thank his fans with a photo captioned: "It’s been a tough journey but we are here and we are through to semi’s! Thank you to everyone for all the support!"

Omanyala gave notice he might be a medal hope in Eugene after he beat Olympic silver medalist Fred Kerley of the U.S. at a meet in Kenya in May.

 He set the African men's 100 metres record after clocking a time of 9.77 seconds at the Kip Keino Classic meeting in Nairobi in September.