Newly married Akani Simbine says wedlock is helping him run faster as he targets an elusive Olympic medal in Paris later this year.
Simbine, arguably the most talented sprinter in history not to have landed a gong at the world championships and Olympics, was speaking after lowering the 150m national best he had shared with Anaso Jobodwana to 15.04 sec at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday.
“You know, I’m just in a happy space, man,” said the 30-year-old who was married in December. “I’m in a good space. Family life is good ... I’m just happy. Training is going good, business is going good.
“I’m just really happy and looking forward to the future.”
Simbine has been competing on the world senior stage for more than 10 years, and finished fourth in the 100m at the 2019 world championships and the Tokyo 2020 Games.
He was fifth at Rio 2016 and the 2017 and 2022 world championships.
Last year Simbine was disqualified for false-starting in the semifinals. “If you start a new season, everything that’s left behind in the [previous] season is left behind ...
“It’s always about putting my best foot [forward], you know, and trying to be the best that I can be. And for me it's always striving for a medal and going for a medal. Because that's something I know I can do. You know, on my best day I know I'm very competitive and I know I can be on the podium.
“If I don't go for a medal then I shouldn't be in the sport.”
Missing out on so many podiums had not diminished his drive for success.
“[I want an] Olympic medal, I want to be the fastest man in the world. That’s it, it hasn’t changed. You know, even like this year, for me, it even means more because of the fact that I felt like last year was an unfinished story.”
Simbine also spoke about how the men’s 4x100m relay team was being taken more seriously.
After the global showpiece in Budapest last year Simbine had spoken about how they had not been given adequate time to practise and drill their handovers.
“We never [went] to world champs or Olympics prepared, so now the fact that we are preparing, we have something in place, it’s a step forward.”
He pointed out that the relay would take time.
“We've spoken a lot about plans to put ourselves in a better position.
“We're going to go to World Relays [to try qualify for the Olympics], do training camps ... I think this weekend we have a training camp in Potchefstroom which we’re looking forward to.
“Yeah, we're just going to build on that and see where this thing takes us. It's not going to be an immediate effect, but we're hoping to create a culture of relays in South Africa where we do camps and we do all that we need to do.”
Simbine said he would likely open his season at one of the grand prix meets next month, possibly the one in Pretoria.
But he added an important consideration in scheduling his season was obtaining world ranking points — more prestigious races like the Diamond League offer more points.
South African meets are way down in value.
“I’m not going to put myself in a race where I don't get ranking points because that's an important thing now for the world of athletics. For me, staying top five, staying top 10, I have to race to get the points.”
Even Botswana and Kenya offer top meets with more points than can be found locally.
Simbine will do what he has to in order to qualify for national championships and national selection.
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