The South African 100m champion, Akani Simbine of TuksAthletics, will start his build-up to the Tokyo Olympic Games on 10 June 2021 when he competes in the Wanda Rome/Florence Diamond League in Italy.

The Tuks based athlete is not the only Olympian who will be competing. Wenda Nel is racing the 400m-hurdles at the same tournament in Italy. 

Werner Prinsloo (coach) wants Simbine to slowly hone his skills over the next few weeks in races. It is a recipe that has worked in the past. According to Prinsloo, there is a very thin line between being race fit and over-raced. 

Prinsloo said the COVID-19 pandemic complicates planning Simbine's international racing schedule. 

Nel's international campaign starts on 6 June when she races in Hengelo. The South African 400m-hurdles champion cannot wait as she seems to be in good form. In the recent Meeting League held at the Bestmed TuksAthletics Stadium, she won running a time of 55.63s. More exciting was setting a new personal best on the same day in the 400 metres. She ran 52.72s.

Gift Leotlela who is recently topping the South African 100m charts as the fastest male sprinter is racing on 1 June in Montreuil, France. He became the sixth South African sprinter to dip under ten seconds when he won the 100 metres in 9.94s during the USSA Athletics Championships in Johannesburg. The Tuks sprinter is hesitant to make bold predictions. 

"I will do my best to keep running well," is all he promised. 

The South African shot put champion, Kyle Blignaut, is competing on 7 June in Prague. He became South Africa's third-best shot putter when he won gold during the USSA Athletics Championships with a throw of 21.21 metres. 

Blignaut is confident of throwing even further. He believes a distance of 21.40 and further is possible. According to him, that is what it will take to compete in Tokyo in the Olympic final. 

Simbine (100m), Nel (400m-hurdles), Clarence Munyai (200m), and Wayne Snyman (20km race walk) are part of the first squad of athletes named to represent Team SA at the Tokyo Olympics today. 

But they are not the only Tuks athletes who will be competing at the Games. Leotlela and Blignaut have qualified during the USSA Championships. Zokwakhana Zazini (400m-hurdles) qualified in 2019 when he ran 48.73s during the World Student Games in Napoli, Italy. 

South Africa's 4x100m relay team and 4x400m relay teams qualified to compete in Tokyo. There is a real chance that six or more of the relay athletes will be from Tuks. The team that won gold at the World Relays Championships was Simbine, Leotlela, Munyai and Thando Dlodlo. They are all Tuks athletes.