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Daily Maverick
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Maverick
Akani Simbine is leading South Africa's greatest-ever crop of sprinters
There is seemingly a young, world-class sprinter around every corner in South Africa. South Africa's sprinting stocks have been filled to the brim, and in some distances are pouring over. Akani Simbine is leading a pack of mostly young, incredibly fast sprinters who are starting to dominate the track globally. Simbine is in the form of his life, having won all five 100m races he's participated in this year, as well as opening his season with his first major medal, sealing bronze in the 60m Indoor Championships. Three of those five wins have been at Diamond League events, with his most recent victory this past weekend in Rabat, Morocco, in a time of 9.95 seconds. It came against a strong field that included Kenya's Ferdinand Omanyala, two-time Olympic 100m medalist Fred Kerley — who finished second and third respectively — as well as America's Kyree King and Botswana's first Olympic champion, Letsile Tebogo. The unprecedented run of success this year is built on a career of consistency by Simbine. In his first 100m race of the year, at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix at the start of April, Simbine ran 9.90 seconds — still currently the world lead — to become the first athlete ever to run sub-10 seconds in the 100m for 11 consecutive years. For the better part of the past decade Simbine has been carrying the 100m sprinting baton on his own internationally, but over the last few seasons a plethora of world-class sprinters have landed on the track. The one that has attracted the most attention is 19-year-old Bayanda Walaza. The attention is not unwarranted as this past weekend Walaza ran a blistering 9.94 seconds in Zagreb, Croatia — the fastest any South African under-20 athlete has ever run. The speedy dash put Walaza firmly into the national record books, as the tied fourth-fastest South African across 100m of all time. Only Simbine (9.82), Benjamin Richardson (9.86) and Shaun Maswanganyi (9.91) have ever gone faster. Depth A sign of South Africa's incredible depth is that Richardson (21) and Maswanganyi (24) are not even at the peak of their powers yet. South Africa's greatest-ever sprinters are all active right now. To add to them, Walaza'a 9.94 seconds is tied with Wayde van Niekerk and Gift Leotlela, whose personal bests are the same mark. Van Niekerk's history of injury is well documented. Leotlela though, having set that mark in 2021, is nearing being back to his best, which adds another name to South Africa's sprinting base. In April this year, 27-year-old Leotlela won the national championship title in the 100m dash in a time of 9.99 seconds, inching quicker than Walaza by 0.01 seconds. This victory came after a few seasons of injury and subsequent loss of form. Leotlela beat out an extremely competitive field that included Richardson, who placed third. The standard of competition was so high that Bradley Nkoana (20) — part of South Africa's 4x100m silver medallist team at the Paris Olympic Games, as well as bronze medalist at the under-20 World Athletics Championships last year — didn't even make the final. One-lap specialists South Africa's strength in depth is evident in the one-lap sprint as well. While there is no one standout like Simbine in the 100m version of the sprint, there is a world-class young group developing. The oldest of the bunch, Zakithi Nene (27), is having a breakthrough season of note after a disappointing Paris Olympic Games in which he failed to make the 400m final. Since then, the visibly stronger Nene has been in incredible form. He ran a personal-best of 44.22 seconds at the National Championships in April, comfortably beating a strong field — in which none of the eight runners went over 46 seconds. In Nene's most recent race, at the Diamond League in Rabat this weekend, he finished in a close second after being beaten at the dip by America's Jacory Patterson. Nene came in at 44.46 seconds. Lythe Pillay (22) is another with supreme control over the one-lap sprint, but has struggled so far to consistently replicate the form that made him a junior world champion. Pillay is a two-time national champion in the 400m and has a personal best of 44.31 seconds, exhibiting his clear potential. South Africa currently has two of the best under-20 runners in the 400m sprint coming through. Udeme Okon is only 19 years old and has already broken 45 seconds, claiming second place behind Nene at the National Champs in 44.99 seconds. He also won the Under-20 World Championship comfortably last year in Peru. Schoolboy Leendert Koekemoer (18), meanwhile, has a personal best of 45.03 seconds — which also came at the nationals. Koekemoer and Okon, despite their youthful ages, were both part of the 4x400m team that claimed gold and a national record at the World Relays in Guangzhou, China, earlier this month. Not only do they have the talent, they have the mettle, too. South Africa also has the always consistent Gardeo Isaacs, who along with Nene were the other members of the relay team, to fall back on as well as US-based Antonie Nortje. South Africa's sprinting depth has never been this deep before. It means that while athletes like Simbine are a shoo-in for a podium position at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September, both groups of athletes are also capable of returning with gold medals around their necks at the relay portion of the event — as they did at the World Relays. DM
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Extra Effort: Stark County shot putter earning national recognition for Future Farmers of America
STARK COUNTY, Illinois (WMBD) – Chelsey Stotler is an elite shotput throwers for Stark Countyl, After a top 5 finish at state last year, she PR'd at the Indoor Championships in March. 'Since fifth grade, my mom and my dad have pushed me towards it to be the best shot put thrower that I can be. I just fell in love with the sport and I would continue to be better,' Stotler said. Chelsea's mom was a star thrower in her own right before she enlisted in the Army. 'My mom threw collegiately for two years before she enlisted in the military. It's super exciting to watch them watch me succeed,' she said. Having a military parent meant Chelsey was raised to be a leader. She's the Stark County Future Farmers of America president. One of her research projects earned Chelsey second place in a national competition. I worked with probiotics and Chobani Greek yogurt, and I freeze dried it to see if the fat content would affect it. And I found that the fat content did not affect it. Basically, I found somebody like Secret Recipe for their probiotic strains. I did email them and they promised me coupons. I have not seen the coupons yet. Chelsey Stotler As her senior year, wraps up, Chelsey has one more project for competition, and wants to thank her parents for the character they instilled in her. I partnered with Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to work with their patented RHD on soybeans as a bio stimulant. It increase their yield and increased their height, basically how they photosynthesize. Those values have still stayed with me. Direct service, it's how I am and what I do. Chelsey Stotler Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Independent
09-03-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
George Mills wins 3,000m silver at European Indoor Championships
George Mills won a second consecutive European silver medal at the Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn. The 25-year-old, who is the son of former England footballer Danny Mills, again had to settle for second behind Norwegian star Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 3,000 metres. It was a repeat of last summer's outdoor championships in Rome, where Mills lost out to Ingebrigtsen in the 5,000m. Having stretched out the field, Mills hung on when he was overtaken by his rival, and, although the distance grew over the final lap, the British athlete comfortably crossed the line in second. 'When Jakob came round, I knew that would come at some point,' said Mills on BBC Sport. 'Four hundred (metres) out, I thought it was a bit early to try to defend. I thought, 'OK, I'll sit on and see if I can attack on the home straight'. Unfortunately he pulled away but I think I saw on the clock it was only a one-second gap and I think it was 1.2 in Rome so I'm getting closer.' On his silver medal, he added: 'Anything less now would have been really disappointing. I guess I did the minimum of what I could but I'm obviously happy to come away with a silver, but I need to work more for summer.' Mills was joined trackside by his father Danny, who said of watching from the sidelines: 'It's horrible, it really is. I've said so many times it's like watching a penalty shootout time and time again. 'The hour or so beforehand is absolutely terrible, I've got sore hands again from banging the boards. It's tough, but he gave it absolutely everything. 'A lot of respect to Jakob, he's got to be one of the best of all time. George is building all the time, getting more confident, and I'm sure sooner rather than later he'll have his time.'
