Imagine what it must be like to run as fast as the fastest men in the world. 

At a top speed of close to 45km/h, the ferocity and power of running 100m in under 10 seconds is something only a few will ever know. Genetic ability counts for a lot. But so do hours of training, form drills, gym work and mental preparation – for an event that’s over in a few blinks of an eye. 

There is a fascination with the fast men and women. Many consider the 100m the highlight of any athletics meeting – the blue ribbon event – and TV audiences are almost always highest when the sprint events are being screened. Netflix’s latest sports doccie, Sprint, focusses entirely on the sprinters for instance.

Over the years, the fastest in the world have grown into a mixture of mystique and myth: Jesse Owens, Linford Christie, Carl Lewis, and most recently, the greatest of them all – Usain Bolt, the current world record-holder. 

Since Bolt’s retirement in 2017, American Noah Lyles has taken over the mantle of world’s fastest man; but in Paris, South Africa’s Akani Simbine is vying to become the one at the top of the pile.

The current South African record-holder and second fastest man in Africa is on the rise. Earlier in the year he had won three times in major meetings, including two in the Diamond League, and just two weeks before the Paris heats begin he finished a close second behind Lyles at the London Diamond League event running under 10 seconds for the 41st time. In the process he’s claimed the scalps of top-ranked Americans Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley, along with that of Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, world championship silver medallist Letsile Tebogo and world championship bronze medallist Zharnel Hughes.

Mentally and emotionally, I’m ready, and I want to make sure I’m at my best in Paris…

So after a fourth place at the Tokyo Olympics, a fifth in the 2016 Rio Olympics and a fourth and fifth in the 2017 and 2019 world championships, does the Kempton Park-bred speedster finally have the chance of a well-deserved major championship medal?

“I’m going for gold,” says Simbine, speaking via video link as he relaxes on a couch at a house in Atlanta, Georgia. “Mentally and emotionally, I’m ready, and I want to make sure I’m at my best in Paris.

“The stars are aligning and I feel I’m in the best shape of my career. My weight is 76kg, and I’ve found that’s just about my perfect weight. Not too heavy and not too light, so that I’m strong and explosive.”

Simbine struggled with depression after his Tokyo Olympic performance in 2021 and last year, during the world championships in Budapest, was disqualified for false starting in the semi-finals before the 4x100m relay team dropped the baton in the heats where SA were favoured to win a medal.

Early Days
Like many South African sports stars, Simbine began his sporting career on the soccer field. Being fast, he made rapid progress in school-level soccer, despite being pushed to try sprinting by his teachers.

“I eventually agreed to run, but my focus was always on soccer,” Simbine says. “When I was in grade nine and 10, I was beating the matrics, and I soon broke the school record. But I wasn’t keen on sprinting, to be honest.”

Still, it soon became apparent that Simbine needed to take sprinting more seriously, as records and his times began to fall. His parents eventually signed him up with coach Werner Prinsloo (who is still his coach), and his path to an athletics career was decided.

“At that stage, I was playing Castle League soccer – one down from Premier League – so it was a super-hard decision to let go of my soccer dream, and to follow athletics. I think I could have gone all the way and become a soccer professional, and played in Europe,” Simbine says. 

…it was a super-hard decision to let go of my soccer dream, and to follow athletics…”

At the age of 18, Simbine finished third in the SA Junior championships and was chosen for the World Junior championships that year. But it was when he broke the SA Junior record of 10.19 that he began to understand his true potential. 

“I started to realise that ‘I am pretty fast’,” he says now. “There was a big bohaai when I broke the junior 100m record, but I didn’t really know much about the Olympics and world championships. It was only [made clear] when I met my agent, Peet van Zyl, who sat me down and explained how I could travel the world and make money with my talent.”

Before he knew it, as an 18-year-old, Simbine was off on his first European plane ride – ready to take on the world, as Van Zyl pushed to get him invites to European meetings.

It was a big step up from his middle-class upbringing in Kempton Park. He explains that it was probably his mom who handed down the sprint genes. 

“Yeah, my mom was a fast runner at school,” says Simbine.

During his first stint in Europe he learned all he could about the art of sprinting from the best in the world, and earned a living in the process.

“In my first race in Italy I finished sixth or seventh, and earned 300 Euros. I thought, sjoe… I’m rich!”

But it wasn’t easy for the wide-eyed teenager. 

“I spent six weeks in Europe during my first season. I was thrown in at the deep end and expected to swim,” he says. “Peet just said ‘go there and figure it out’, and that’s what I did. I became a lot more mature.”

At times his inexperience led to some amusing incidents. During a meeting in Lausanne he was late for the bus that took the athletes to the track from the warm-up area, and forced superstars like Justin Gatlin, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay to have to wait for him.

“I could see what they were thinking: Who’s this skinny guy holding us up?”

But slowly Simbine began to realise that he belonged in that high-flying company – and over the last six years, he’s established himself among the very best in the world.

Medal Calling
Having yet to medal at a major championship, is Simbine starting to feel the pressure of finally zeroing in on taking home something more than just a place in the final?

“I think a lot of it comes down to luck; it just hasn’t been my time. But I think this year, I’ll be fighting with the guys on the podium. People think I’m an outsider for a medal, but I know I’m capable of being among the medals. And even winning.”

After his string of successes in 2024, as the easy season victories have racked up, Simbine has started to believe that he can be the best in the world.

“It’s very difficult to beat a sprinter who’s confident. But right now, I trust my race pattern and my form.”

He’s known as a relatively slow starter, but capable of building to an impressive top speed in the second half of the race.

“I like to think that I’m an average starter; but I know that from 60 metres on, I have one of the fastest top-end speeds out there. It’s the strongest part of my race.”

Relay Glory
No doubt Simbine will also lead South Africa’s promising relay team, which was DNF’d last year after dropping the baton in the final at the world championships in Budapest. At the time, Simbine lashed out at Athletics South Africa, saying that the team had received little support in helping get the team members together to practise.

“There’s no doubt that we can medal. We won the Olympic qualifying event, and that’s where the top eight teams were,” he says.

Since Budapest the national federation has contacted the team coaches to try and set up training blocks, but logistically it was tough to set up a training camp. However, the team will be at a training camp from 21 July, and should be able to get some preparation in before the relay events get underway.

The Future
Though a father of two, with multiple business interests, Simbine is still a long way from considering retirement. But he believes that South Africa has the talent to produce more like him.

“I think that all a lot of kids need is the motivation to take it to the next level,” he says. “I want to see other runners do even better than I’ve done. Continuation needs to happen in the next generation, and it needs to start now.”

But right now, for Simbine, it’s all about Paris; and a chance to become South Africa’s first 100m medallist since Reggie Walker won gold at the 1908 Olympics.

This story appeared in the July/August 2024 edition of Runner’s World South Africa.

 

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