To continuously run sub 9.90s 100-metre races are going to be Akani Simbine’s main challenge in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympic Games.

“Akani has got no choice but to do so. The results at the World Championship in Doha showed that it takes a time of 9.90s or faster to medal,” explained Werner Prinsloo last week after Simbine received the Tuks Sportsman of the Year award.

It is the second consecutive year that he is the recipient of this prestigious reward.

Prinsloo predicts that the winning times during next year’s Olympic Games might even be faster than it was in Doha. In Tokyo, the athletes will be racing on a state-of-the-art Mondo track.

Christian Coleman from the USA won gold at the World Championship running 9.76s. It is the fastest time this season. Another American, Justlin Gatlin, was second in 9.89s and Andre de Grasse from Canada third in 9.90s. Simbine finished fourth in 9.93s.

Since 2016 the Tuks based athlete has undoubtedly established himself as one of the world’s foremost sprinters. At the Rio Olympics, Simbine was fifth in the 100m-final and during the 2017 World Championships in London fourth.

Prinsloo is OK with what happened in London and Rio but admits that Doha hurts.

“Don’t get me wrong. Akani ran a fantastic race. The time of 9.93s is a season’s best. It is getting so close to medalling that makes it painful. Afterwards, as a coach, I went through a full spectrum of emotions. First, I cried. Then I was in denial and then I got angry. We had only one goal this season. It was to medal in Doha. We missed out by a mere 0.03s,” Prinsloo explained.

The coach is on record that he never wants Simbine to get obsessed with running specific times. However, he adds that there is no getting away from reality.

Since 2015, the Tuks based sprinter has notched up 23 sub-ten-second results in the 100 metres but only once did he managed to dip under 9.90s once. It was in 2016 when he ran 9.89s in Hungary.

“It is frustrating to being so close yet so far from what we need to do. I got to help Akani to break through the 9.90s barrier it means things need to change. At the moment I don’t exactly know what it is going to be. I am playing around with a few ideas. It is basically going to boil down to finetuning a few small things,” said Prinsloo, who is not one for making excuses.

– Tatjana Schoenmaker is Tuks’s Sportswomen of the Year. Her coach Rocco Meiring received the award as the best individual coach.

– Zokwakhana Zazini (400m-hurdles) and Danelle Wentzel (archery) are the respective Tuks student sportsman and sportswoman.

– The Assupol TuksCricket head coach, Kruger van Wyk, received the award as coach of the year for team sports. Assupol Tuks is also the sports club of the year.

– TuksNetball received the Principal’s award for outstanding team performance.

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