Simbine back to his best
Akani Simbine, clocks 9.99s against a strong head wind at the 2021 AGN Championships.
Running sub-10-seconds times was no big deal to SA 100m champion Akani Simbine.
The 27-year-old ran 9:99s in 100m on Saturday, during the Gauteng North Championships at the Bestmed Tuks athletics stadium.
The wind and not the stopwatch turned out to be the Tuks based sprinter’s biggest challenge. When the athletes settled in their starting blocks for the 100m final, they were up against a three-metre per second headwind.
Simbine is only the second sprinter to dip under 10 seconds so far this season.
Benjamin Azamati-Kwaku (Ghana) clocked 9.97s on Friday in the USA.
The South African 100m record-holder, Simbine, admitted to being disappointed and frustrated with the race despite the good result.
“There was a mere moment that I thought, what is the point of racing. But you have to be able to adjust. Set the mind straight. Get focused on what you need to do. Run sub-10 seconds.
“Today’s windy conditions were some of the worst I ever raced in. When I saw my time, I thought it is better than nothing. If it was not for the wind, I know I could have been faster,” he said.
Gift Leotlela of Tuks was second in a time of 10:20, with Thando Dlodlo (Tuks) third, clocking 10:35.
Simbine was impressed by his younger rivals.
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“It is great to have Gift back and to be racing against him. He has the potential to become one of the greats. Actually, today was exciting. Every athlete was prepared to race. If we can continue doing, so there is going to be some exciting racing in South Africa,” he said.
Simbine said he had a simple strategy; he never raced against any specific athlete.
His only focus was to try and execute the perfect race.
“Whoever wants to outsprint me in South Africa will have to come up with something special.”
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