Akani Simbine shows he is ready for Olympic Games with new African record in 100m
If there was still anyone who doubted whether Akani Simbine was a serious candidate for a medal in the 100m sprint at this year's Olympics, they would have to think again after his brilliant performance on Tuesday in Hungary.
Akani Simbine set a new Africa and South African 100m-record on Tuesday night, running 9.84s during the Gyulaist van Memorial Meeting in Hungary.
It is the second time in five years that Simbine set a national record on the same track. In 2016 he clocked a time of 9.89s in Hungary.
Simbine truly reset the record books with his speedy exploit. The previous African record was set by Nigeria’s Olusoji Fasuba in 2006. He clocked 9.85s in 2006 in Doha. What made everything that little bit more special to Simbine was that he also got to improve on the meeting record (9.86s) set by Asafa Powell (Jamaica) in 2011.
Simbine has been idolising Powell ever since he first started to challenge the stopwatch.
The sprinter from Pretoria is, for now, the second-fastest man in the world. Only Trayon Bromell (USA), who ran 9.77s, has been faster over 100 metres.
His performance was near perfect. Simbine was fast out of the blocks. By 30 metres, he was already in the lead still; he got faster with each stride. By the time he crossed the finish line, he was a metre in half ahead of his nearest rival.
Michael Rodgers (USA) was second in 10.00s and Marvin Bracy (USA) third in 10.02s.
The Tuks based athlete was, however, not done for the evening. Just over an hour later, he was back on track again to race the 200 metres. He won his race in 20.25, running against a 3.25m/s headwind.
Werner Prinsloo, Simbine’s coach, is the one person who would not have been surprised by Simbine’s speedy exploits. He predicted last week that Simbine is bound to run a fast time.
“If we can just have one race in which the weather does not act up, I know Akani is going to be fast, really fast. I won’t be surprised if he dips under 9.90s,” Prinsloo said.
Simbine’s next race is on Friday when he competes at the Monaco Diamond League Meeting. According to Prinsloo, it will be near a dress rehearsal for the Tokyo Olympics 100 metres final.
Trayon Bromell (USA), currently the world’s fastest athlete, after clocking 9.77s, is in the lineup. Ronnie Baker has a season’s best of 9.85s, and Fred Kearly (9.86s). Six of the eight athletes who are competing in Monaco have dipped under 10 seconds this season.
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