From host to competitor, Akani Simbine ready for his ground-breaking athletics meet

Akani Simbine will transform from host to gladiator as he bids to beat the guests he invited to his own meet in Pretoria on Tuesday afternoon.

The sprinting star’s dream of developing athletics locally takes a huge step forward with the inaugural SuperSport Simbine Classic, the first World Athletics Continental Tour silver label meet to be held in South Africa.

Race director Simbine has attracted several international stars, including Andre De Grasse, Canada’s winner of seven Olympic medals, and African Games champion Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon.

Now to beat them.

Simbine said on Monday the meet at Pilditch Stadium would cost “many millions” — prize money alone is totalling nearly R1.5m, with winners earning R50,000 each — but come Tuesday he would need to recalibrate his role to sprinter as he prepares to open his season.

“I don’t know what time I’m going to get to the track. I’m still working that out,” Simbine told a press conference.

“But I think tomorrow is race day for me. As much as I am race director, I have a great team working behind the scenes so they are going to make sure everything works.”

Simbine, who also announced pay channel SuperSport as the title sponsor, admitted organising the event had been a lot of work.

“On the funding side it’s been a challenge. It’s been a bit tough but I think it’s because we also got onto it very late. It fell on the other side of companies’ financial years. But the companies that have got on board have decided to partner with us [fully].”

Simbine, who launched his foundation a few years ago, would like to see the event inspiring more future athletes.

“African athletics and South African athletics have proven to the world we deserve to be here and we deserve to be part of the world tour,” said Simbine, who anchored the South African 4x100m team to Olympic silver at Paris 2024.

He was also part of the outfit that won World Relays last year and individually won Commonwealth Games gold in 2018 and took bronze at the 2025 world indoor championships.

“We’ve been saying to the world we have the performances, we have the athletes, we are doing well on the world tour, we are doing well at the championships, we are doing well at the Olympic Games. It’s very important now we say to the world ‘we’re ready to take a next step and host such a meet’ and I believe that will inspire the next generation of athletes who want to stay in the sport.

“We lose a lot of kids when they leave high school because they don’t see anything in the physical, they don’t see something like this. They watch the tours on TV and that’s far from them. Bringing this here, the dream becomes more accessible.

“I hope we can grow this into a bigger competition,” he said, adding he would like to see it become gold label and eventually Diamond League.

Several international and local stars are competing in other events.

African athletics and South African athletics has proven to the world we deserve to be here and we deserve to be part of the world tour

—  Akani Simbine

Zakithi Nene, who helped the national 4x400m team to bronze at the world championships last year, takes part in the 300m against Olympic bronze medallist Muzala Samukonga.

Middle distance fans are also in for a treat. Kenyan Ferguson Rotich, a former Olympic silver medallist, takes on former world indoor championship runner-up Noah Kibet in the 800m, while the 3,000m will see Tshepo Tshite taking on national record-holder Jerry Motsau and Luan Munnik.

Prudence Segkodiso is racing the women’s 1,500m and Aiden Smith will face off against former South African Zane Weir of Italy in the shot put.

The women’s 100m hurdles will see a clash between former Olympic silver medallists Nia Ali of the US and Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France.

In the women’s javelin former Olympic champion Sara Kolak of Croatia will take on Briton Freya Jones, a former US collegiate champion.

The meet is scheduled to begin at 3.45pm.

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