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Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
South African sprinter Simbine shrugs off 'nearly man' tag
South Africa's Akani Simbine has narrowly missed out on medals at a series of major championships (ADEK BERRY) In-form South African sprinter Akani Simbine insists he is no "nearly man" despite missing a podium finish in the men's 100m at the last three Olympics by a combined total of just eight-hundredths of second. The 31-year-old finished fifth at the 2016 Rio Olympics before successive fourth places at the 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Games. While he was three-hundredths of a second off the pace in Rio and four-hundredths away in Tokyo, he missed out on an individual Olympic medal in the French capital to Fred Kerley by just one-hundredth of a second. His participation at the world championships have seen him place fifth (2017), fourth (2019) and fifth (2022) in the 100m. Simbine did eventually bag a global medal by anchoring South Africa to Olympic silver in the 4x100m relay in Paris. He followed that up with world indoor bronze over 60m in Nanjing in March, a result that fired his season off and since then he has lined up three wins over 100m, including at the two opening Diamond League meets in China. "People say that I'm the nearly man, I don't see it like that," Simbine told reporters ahead of this weekend's world relays in Guangzhou. "I see myself as an athlete that's never given up on achieving, that's never given up on trying to be the best. "I really came into the season with a different mentality from last year. It was more of coming into the season with the mentality of being content, in a space where I'm happy as me as an athlete and not letting my achievements of track define me in my career." Simbine added: "I know what my career has done, I know what my career is and I know what my career has shown to athletics. "I've proved myself to be an elite athlete and I've proved myself to be an elite sprinter. I don't need a medal to kind of prove that. The medal is just a cherry on top. "So having that tag as the nearly man, it's noise at the end of the day." - Tokyo the goal - Simbine's three victories this season have all been in sub-10 second times, meaning he became the first sprinter to run under that barrier for 11 straight years, outdoing Usain Bolt's previous record of 10 consecutive sub-10 seasons. Simbine will headline a South African sprint quartet seeking to reclaim gold in the world relays in Guangzhou this weekend after previously winning in Chorzow in 2021. The early-season Chinese swing is but a step en route to the world championships back in Asia, this time in Tokyo in September. "At the beginning of the season, we always set a goal for the major championship, which is Tokyo," he said. "And for me, that is to get on to the podium. But we're not even looking at it right now. We're just trying to make sure that we take each competition as it comes. "We keep taking it week by week and trying to break the season down because it's such a long season. it's all geared up to be at our best in September and October." Simbine credited his impressive start to the season to having had "a really great indoors" but said he wanted to peak later in the season. "I'm not meant to be running 9.7 or 9.8 now in May. That doesn't make sense because we want to make sure we're at our best in September." Looking even further ahead, Simbine admitted that a fourth Olympics, in Los Angeles, was on his radar. "2028 is definitely the plan," he said. "But it might be my last Olympics. But we'll see. We'll see what the body says. If the body still allows after that, I will definitely stick around." vg-lp/gj
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump talks tough on China, but early focus elsewhere
A vendor closes her shop with a face mask of US President Donald Trump at the Yiwu International Trade Market in China on April 11, 2025 (ADEK BERRY) (ADEK BERRY/AFP/AFP) Voicing frustration over the lack of success in ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for renewed focus on "our number-one geopolitical foe" -- China. "Not that a war in Ukraine is not important, but I would say what's happening with China is more important in the long term for the future of the world," Rubio told Fox News host Sean Hannity. President Donald Trump's inner circle has long spoken of China as the arch-enemy, with some suggesting that ending the Ukraine war will free up resources to counter Beijing -- especially if it seeks to move on Taiwan. Yet more than 100 days into Trump's term, observers also notice a surprising lack of attention on China. Trump has hit China hard with tariffs, but otherwise, there has been little by way of articulated strategy. Rubio, who in his Senate confirmation hearing warned that China could affect "virtually everything that matters to us in life" within a decade, has yet to visit East Asia, focusing attention on Trump's priority of deporting mostly Latin American migrants as well as to diplomacy on Ukraine. "I think that the White House thought that they'd be in a different place with China now than where they are," said Wendy Cutler, a former top US trade negotiator who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Trump's tariff war "escalated so quickly that it's hard to unwind now," she said. China, she said, is "playing a longer game" with President Xi Jinping rallying the population by blaming the United States for economic pain. - Faith in Xi ties - Trump is surrounded by reputed hawks such as Rubio, who is now also interim national security advisor, but Trump himself is transactional and appears "enamored with Xi Jinping," Cutler said. "He thinks that they get along well, and that if it's leader to leader, they can figure out this relationship and put it back on track," she said. The United States and China plan their first formal trade talks this week in Switzerland, over a month after Trump unveiled his sweeping levies. Trump, who has vowed to remake the global economic system, has slapped 145 percent tariffs on products from China, which has responded with 125 duties on imports from the United States. "Their economy is suffering greatly because they're not doing trade with the US," Trump told reporters Tuesday. - 'Nuanced'? - Trump has shown himself to be far more radical than in his first term on a host of issues. But he has shown signs of pragmatism on China, despite heated rhetoric against Beijing on the campaign trail. David Perdue, a former senator and Trump's pick for ambassador to Beijing, wrote about China during the campaign that "America is at war" -- but in his confirmation hearing said that the US approach should be "nuanced, non-partisan and strategic." Former president Joe Biden's administration also identified China as the top rival but sought to work together on targeted areas, such as fighting climate change and curbing fentanyl. Yet the Biden administration also pursued a broader regional strategy of facing down China through alliances. It began a shift of US forces in southern Japan and northern Philippines -- within proximity of Taiwan -- and pursued coalitions to reject the use of Chinese high-technology. Trump has derided allies, especially in Europe, as freeloaders, and has hit even US friends with tariffs, although he relented at least temporarily on higher rates. China has quickly reached out to Japan and South Korea, among the closest US allies, to explore a free-trade deal. "By undercutting core US alliances and partnerships across Europe and Asia, he is reducing the leverage that the United States can bring to bear vis-a-vis China," said Ali Wyne, who follows China for the International Crisis Group. He also questioned how the tariff war fit into a considered strategy on China, which now has an incentive to double down on achieving greater self-sufficiency and has been able to project itself as "a more stabilizing geopolitical force than the world's preeminent power." "Despite his alleged friendship with Xi and his stated desire for the United States and China to collaborate more robustly, he has created a trade impasse from which neither leader has an easy face-saving off-ramp," Wyne said. sct-lb/md/des
