Akani Simbine soars into exclusive sprint club aiming for Olympic gold

Akani Simbine flew into an exclusive sprinting club at the weekend and then declared he was looking to win what he believes will be a “super open” Olympic 100m contest.

Simbine dipped under 9.90 sec for only the third time in his career at the Diamond League meet in London, clocking 9.86 sec to finish second behind reigning world champion Noah Lyles.

He achieved that first in 2016, when he hit 9.89 in Hungary and lowered it to 9.84 in 2021.

More than 50 athletes in history have run below 9.90, but that eight-year stretch over which he’s achieved those times rocketed Simbine to sixth on the longevity list measuring the gap between first and last 9.8-efforts (or lower).

The five men above him — Usain Bolt (8 years, 3 months), Tyson Gay (8 years 11 months), Yohan Blake (10 years 8 months), Asafa Powell (10 years 10 months) and Justin Gatlin (15 years 1 month) — also happen to be the fastest men of all time.

And between them they also have Olympic and world championship silverware, a major gap that Simbine is aiming to close at Paris 2024.

The 100m has an army of quick sprinters where no fewer than 12 lightning men could end up competing for the eight-lane final come the semifinals on August 4.

“It’s a super open Olympics,” Simbine told TimesLIVE Premium after the race.

“It’s very open — like super, super, super open — anybody can take, whoever’s better on the day,” said Simbine, who had the satisfaction of downing the silver and bronze world championship medallists from last year, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and Briton Zharnel Hughes.

“That’s something that I see and I believe it right now. If I’m in the best shape — well, I’m going to be in the best shape — but if everything works out to my favour, I will take it and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”

In his previous 100m outing in Hungary nearly two weeks before Simbine finished third behind Jamaican Kishane Thompson, owner of the 9.77 world lead, and Tebogo.

“Just the beginning phase,” he replied when asked what had gone wrong.

“And it’s just race sharpness. The last time I raced 100 metres was in Oslo, which was over a month before. So it’s just race sharpness and this now gives me more race sharpness, but gives me an extra confidence going into the Games.”

The race on Saturday was exactly two weeks before the 100m heats in Paris.

That’s the closest Simbine’s gone sub-9.9 ahead of an Olympics; in 2016 he did it 26 days out and in 2021 25 days out.

Simbine is also a crucial member of the South African 4x100m relay team, but the 30-year-old said his attention was fully on the individual event at the moment.

“My focus is on the 100m. The rest of the relay, I’ll see once I’m done with the 100m. I need to focus on putting myself in the best position to win at the Games and then the relays will come second.”

Simbine is one of a few South Africans who have a realistic chance of winning two medals in Paris, along with swim star Tatjana Smith (100m and 200m breaststroke) and veteran athlete Wayde van Niekerk (4x100m and 4x400m relays).

The last South African to win an Olympic 100m medal happened to be the country’s first medallist, Reggie Walker, who took gold at London 1908.