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Simbine beat world superstars in 100m sprint in London

Akani Simbine has shown over the weekend that he could be a serious medal candidate in the 100m sprint at this year's World Championship at the end of September in Qatar.

Pretoria’s Olympic star, Akani Simbine, has finally shown over the weekend that he can be counted among the world’s fastest men and that he might win his first medal at a world championship later this year.

The Tuks based sprinter made history on Saturday when he won the 100 metres during the London Diamond League Meeting. This was only Simbine’s second Diamond League victory.

His first Diamond League victory was in 2017 when he outsprinted the likes of Asafa Powell, Justin Gatlin and Andre de Grasse. All three of these men count among the five fastest athletes ever over 100m.

On Saturday Simbine’s winning time was 9.93s. Zarnel Hughes (Britain) was second in 9.95s and Yohan Blake (Jamaica) third in 9.97s.

Blake is a former world champion (2011) and he is officially the second fastest man ever over 100m.

Simbine’s performance in London proves that he has now established himself among the best runners in the world. After his 5th places in the 100m sprint at the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and the World Championships in London in 2017, he also won the 100m at the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018.

This victory also proves that Simbine’s preparation for the World Championships (28 September to 6 October in Qatar) is on track as from the beginning of the year the goal was for him to ran a season’s best in London. He did. His previous best was 9.95s.

 

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Koos Venter

Koos Venter is an experienced journalist who started his career 35 years ago, before the days of cellphones, modern computer systems, the internet and digital cameras, as a correspondent for Nexus, the former national magazine of the Department of Correctional Services. He has since worked for various other publications in all aspects of news coverage, as a columnist and in the production side of newspapers and online publications. Since 2007 he has specialized as a sports writer, while he is also regularly used as an analyst and commentator by several radio stations.
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