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IOL News
16-05-2025
- Sport
- IOL News
Noah Lyles may be running scared of SA star Akani Simbine at Atlanta City Games as Wayde van Niekerk gets back on track
Akani Simbine SA star Akani Simbine (centre) will run in Atlanta on Saturday. Photo: AFP Image: AFP After a lengthy indoor season, a few Diamond League wins and World Relays gold medal, you would think Akani Simbine would take a breather back home. But instead of enjoying the celebrations with the Team South Africa relay squad at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg this week, Simbine travelled in another direction. The 31-year-old SA sprint star left China and headed to the United States to take part in Saturday's adidas Atlanta City Games. Simbine has been in red-hot form, earning a bronze medal at the 60m indoor world championships in China in March in his first ever campaign in that arena. Then he ran a 2025 100m world-lead of 9.90 seconds at the Botswana Grand Prix in Gaborone, before winning consecutive Diamond League races in China. He didn't slow down on his busy start to the year, anchoring SA to the 4x100m gold medal at the World Relays in Guangzhou, China last weekend with an astonishing finish to edge out USA's Brandon Hicklin, who boasts the second-fastest 100m time this year of 9.93. Clearly Simbine is the man to beat in Atlanta – so does that mean 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles is running scared of the South African? Lyles, who pulled off an incredible triple-gold-medal haul at the 2023 world championships in Budapest in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, will also be competing at Piedmont Park – but in the 150m event. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad Loading He is chasing Usain Bolt's world best time of 14.35, having run 14.41 in last year's corresponding meeting. But Lyles is seemingly holding his fire for now with regards to Simbine, with the September world championships in Tokyo the main goal for this season. Nevertheless, Simbine will hope to maintain his unbeaten 100m streak for this year, but will be up against a formidable field in Atlanta. Jamaican Oblique Seville is at the top of that list, as he boasts a personal best of 9.81 – which is slightly quicker than Simbine's SA record of 9.82. Seville finished eighth in the fastest-ever 100m Olympic final last year – running 9.91, with Simbine fourth in 9.82. Other notable competitors in Atlanta are Americans Erriyon Knighton (200m world championship silver medallist in 2023 and bronze in 2022) and Cravont Charleston (100m personal best of 9.90), as well as US-based Nigerian Udodi Onwuzurike (9.92 PB). The other South African taking part at the Atlanta City Games will be 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk. The 32-year-old was scheduled to participate at the national championships in Potchefstroom in late April, but withdrew following the birth of his second son. Now Van Niekerk will hope to finally get his 2025 season going, having returned to South Africa on a fulltime basis after leaving his US-based coach Lance Brauman's training squad. Van Niekerk will be running in the 200m event, which indicates that the half-lap event will be his main distance in 2025 again, having reached the semi-finals at last year's Paris Olympics. But he will have to produce some excellent times over the next few months to push for a place in the SA team, with the likes of Sinesipho Dambile (20.01), Bayanda Walaza (20.08), Naeem Jack (20.13) and Abduraghmaan Karriem (20.15) having already breached the 20.16 qualifying mark. Van Niekerk's fastest time in 2024 was his 20.29 effort in Madrid last June. Meanwhile, another member of the SA 4x100m relay team that won silver at the Paris Olympics, Shaun Maswanganyi, will be back on the track in Friday's Diamond League meeting in Doha, Qatar. Maswanganyi will be squaring off with 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo in the half-lap event, and will hope to run the 20.16 world championship qualifying time.
IOL News
26-04-2025
- Sport
- IOL News
‘The race felt good': Akani Simbine too good for Tebogo, Omanyala at Xiamen Diamond League
Akani Simbine Akani Simbine, seen here alongside Letsile Tebogo and Christian Coleman in China on Saturday, survived a stumble after 60 metres to storm to victory. Photo: AFP Image: AFP South African star Akani Simbine proved that his recent victory in Botswana was no fluke as he stormed to a superb 100m win at the Diamond League event in China on Saturday. The 31-year-old sprinter dealt easily with Kenyan superstar Ferdinand Omanyala at the Botswana Grand Prix a few weeks ago, and faced an even more stacked field in Xiamen, China in the first Diamond League meeting of the season. Apart from Omanyala, Simbine came up against Botswana's 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, American speedster Christian Coleman and 60m world indoor champion Jeremiah Azu of Britain. Running in lane five, SA's 4x100m relay Olympic silver medallist made a strong start, but still trailed the likes of Coleman and Omanyala over the first 40 metres. At the halfway mark, though, Simbine put his foot down and gradually edged ahead of Coleman on his inside lane. With about 15 metres to go, the South African was well clear of the field, and produced an outstanding finish to win a time of 9.99 seconds. It was short of his season's best and world lead of 9.90 that he clocked in Botswana, but he was delighted with his performance. 'The race felt good. I stumbled a bit after the 60, so I had to catch myself, but happened to catch the wind while catching the win,' Simbine told the Diamond League website afterwards. 'Keep going with the momentum... I have now going back to the basics, (and) putting myself in a position to learn. Akani Simbine turns on the afterburners 😤💪 Only one man stands out in the Men's 100m in Xiamen 🔥🇿🇦 📺 Stream #XiamenDL on DStv: — SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) April 26, 2025 'I think if the conditions are good and we have a favourable wind to us – if everything is primed for us to run fast, we run fast. 'I am happy with putting the race together as I said before, and getting the win.' Omanyala finished second in 10.13, while Azu was third in 10.17, with Coleman fading to fourth in 10.18. 'For sure my expectation was to win the race, but the second place is not bad,' Omanyala said. 'I was inspired by Simbine during the race. I just go ahead and take it easy. I hope I can just get better and better.' Simbine will remain in China for next Saturday's second Diamond League meeting in Shanghai. He wasn't the only South African in action in Xiamen, though. Women's Paris Olympic javelin silver medallist Jo-Ané du Plessis (née Van Dyk) will have been disappointed with her best effort of 60.38m, which was only good enough for sixth position. In the men's 400m, former world junior champion Lythe Pillay had to settle for seventh spot in a time of 45.28, with Botswana's Bayapo Ndori winning in a superb 44.25. 44.24 ⚡ Zakithi Nene runs the second-fastest Men's 400m time in South African history 😤⌚ 📺 Stream #ASASeniorTFChamps on DStv: — SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) April 26, 2025 But Ndori's time was surpassed by South African Zakithi Nene at the national championships in Potchefstroom on Saturday, as Nene won the title in a stunning 44.22. That was not only a new personal best for Nene, but also the second-fastest time by a South African, behind Wayde van Niekerk's world-record 43.03. Nene is scheduled to compete at the Shanghai Diamond League event next week, where he will be chasing American Chris Robinson's 2025 world-lead time of 44.15. Prudence Sekgodiso has too much over her competitors 😤💥 She does the middle-distance double for the second time in her career ✅ 📺 Stream #ASASeniorTFChamps on DStv: — SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) April 26, 2025
