Simbine has tremendous experience, but he has dipped under 10 seconds only once in five races since his return to racing in July.
Though he hasn’t looked as sharp as he usually would going into a major international championship, experienced sprinter Akani Simbine says he is ready to tear up the track at the World Athletics Championships starting in Tokyo on Saturday.
Opening his campaign earlier than usual this year, 31-year-old Simbine opted to compete on the indoor circuit for the first time, which culminated in a bronze medal in the 60m final at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing.
He then won three successive 100m races on the Diamond League circuit, but knowing he couldn’t hold his form throughout the year, he had to take a mid-season break from racing.
Simbine regaining his form
After returning to the track in July, he finished outside the top three in his next three Diamond League contests, though he showed a return to form by taking second place in the 100m race at the Diamond League final in Zurich last month.
He felt he was starting to sharpen up at the right time, on the eve of the World Championships.
“This has been a very different year for us, but everything has been going well and according to plan,” he said on Wednesday.
“The body is feeling good, I’m feeling good and I’m very confident going into this weekend.”
Working on himself on and off the track
The most consistent 100m sprinter in the world for the last decade, Simbine has finished in the top five at six editions of the World Championships and Olympic Games since 2016, and while he led the SA team to silver in the 4x100m relay at last year’s Paris Olympics, an individual medal still eluded him.
The last time he raced in a major championship in Tokyo, at the Olympics in 2021, Simbine was completely gutted after finishing fourth in the 100m final.
Since then, the SA record holder had benefited from therapy, learning to understand that he was more than just an athlete and couldn’t rely on Olympic or World Championships medals to find value in himself as a human being.
He ultimately came back stronger from that disappointment, and though he remained a contender, his drive to secure that elusive 100m medal was no longer eating at him as much.
“I think at that time (in 2021) the maturity was not there, and for me it exposed a lot of inner weaknesses that I had to go back and work on,” said Simbine.
“I ended up looking back on it and being grateful because without that year I would not have seen these weaknesses and I would not have been able to work on such things.”
