Akani Simbine heads indoors to find more speed as he eyes sub-9.8sec

Sprint king Akani Simbine will compete indoors for the first time in his career in a bid to find more speed before the world championships in Tokyo in September.

Simbine, who anchored the South African men’s 4x100m relay team to Olympic silver after finishing fourth in the 100m in Paris, is looking to sharpen his technique in the early phases on the indoor 60-metre track.

“This year I'm doing my first indoor season. I’m racing indoors next month and going to world indoors [in Nanjing, China, in late March] as well so something new for me,” he said on Saturday night at the Athletics South Africa awards where he was named top male athlete and top male track athlete for 2024.

“We’re using it as an opportunity to test things and work on things we need for the 100m race, just to work on certain parts of my race that I need fine-tuning on, so it’s more trying to get that 0.02sec, 0.03 that I need just to make sure I am improving.

“Every year we look for improvement and this is where we’re going to try get it.”

Simbine lowered his South African 100m record to 9.82sec in the 100m final at the Games, missing the podium by one-hundredth of a second for his second straight Olympic fourth place in that event.

The 30-year-old also finished fourth at the 2019 world championships in Doha and fifth in 2017 and 2022.

Shaving 0.03 off his best time would see him dipping under 9.8 and hopefully winning him his first individual medal at a major event.

“We go into every season trying to get better, trying to get faster, trying to learn, trying to fix what was not working or what needs to be added to our puzzle.

“Everything is new, but for me it’s exciting because I’ve been in one pattern for 10 years and to switch it now feels fresh for me.

“I’ve never thought of doing indoors. That’s a different type of race and a different type of running and I’m not a fan of the cold.

“As much as it’s indoors it’s still winter that side and I don’t like cold at all. It’s a different mentality and a different mental space I’m putting myself in and a different challenge.”

Simbine, who married his long-term partner Terisa in Stellenbosch in December, said he planned to compete at the national championships in April before racing in the Diamond League.

Simine has run the 60m only twice as a professional, both on an outdoor track in Pretoria in 2023, clocking a best of 6.53.

The South African indoor 60m record is 6.48, set in Dortmund, Germany, by Morne Nagel.

“If the record comes, it comes, but that’s not the goal.”

Despite his Olympic medal and wedding, he had trained for much of December preparing for his indoor venture.