Disappointment and anti-climax for Africa’s fastest man with fourth place in 100m at Games (Video)

“Fourth place. Probably one of the worst places to finish in a race. Thank you for all the support and belief through this journey. It’s always an honour representing my country on this stage.”

This is how Africa’s fastest man, Akani Simbine from Pretoria, expressed his own disappointment on his personal Facebook page, after missing the bronze medal in the 100m final at the Olympic Games in Tokyo on Sunday with four-hundredths of a second.

Italy’s Lamont Jacobs is the new Olympic 100 metres champion after he won the race in a time of 9.80s.

His winning time is the second-fastest for the season. Fred Kearly (USA) was second in the Olympic final, running 9.84s and Andre de Grasse (Canada) third in 9.89s.

Simbine was again the unlucky one, finishing fourth in a time of 9.93. So, he missed out by 0.04 seconds on winning a medal. In 2016 in Rio, he also lost out by 0.04s when he finished fifth in 9.94 seconds

The Tuks based athlete had no excuses.

“It is not just a race; it is the final. But the better man won on the day. I am really happy for Jacobs but disappointed in myself. The positive I can take from the Games is that I made the final,” he said shortly after the race.

Simbine was in the mix up to the middle stages of the race, but then he seemed to ‘fade’.

The Tuks athlete praised his rivals, saying their top-end speed was at another level.

The TuksAthletics Manager, Danie Cornelius, said he could see that Simbine so wanted to win a medal for South Africa, but the pressure to do so got to him.

“Akani ran two of the fastest times his career on Sunday. His time in the semi-finals was 9.90s, which is the third fastest. His 9.93s is also one of his best. But he was too tense in the final. His start was not bad. Only Kearly was faster out of the blocks. But he took too long to get in the upright position to start driving. I could see the tension in his upper body as he ran,” Cornelius explained.

According to Cornelius, there is a real risk that, for the first time since the 1992 Barcelona Games, that no South African track and field athlete will win a medal at an Olympics.

The defending Olympic champion and 400m world record holder, Wayde van Niekerk, finished third in his heat this morning, running 45.25s. His time was, however, only the 12th fastest time.

The bad news for South Africa’s 4x100m relay team is that Gift Leotlela tore his hamstring on Sunday in the 100-metre semi-finals. His injury is a big setback for South Africa’s 4x100m-relay team. He was part of the team that won gold at the World Relay Championships earlier this season.