With his 10.01s performance yesterday at the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, Akani Simbine (Tuks/HPC) showed that it will be only a matter of time before he will break 10 seconds over 100 metres again.  

Although Simbine finished 6^th, Werner Prinsloo, his coach, was more than happy with the way the raced played out.

“I watched a video of the race. It was interesting to see that it was a quite tightly contested race.  Akani has certainly regained the form he had before he was injured at the South African Championships in Stellenbosch.

“I think last night’s race (11/06) was a good confidence booster for Akani. He should now realize that there is nothing that can hold him back. It should be only a matter of time before he starts to run times faster than 10 seconds.”

In his first international competition, at the Diamond League Meeting in Rome Two weeks ago, Simbine ran 10.13s. His best time for the season is 9.96s which is also a South African record.

The world record-holder, Usain Bolt (Jamaica), won in 9.88s in Kingston with Nickel Ashmeade (Jamaica) second in 9.94s, Yohan Blake (Jamaica) third in 9.94s and Asafa Powell (Jamaica) fourth in 9.98s.

Bolt’s winning time is the second fastest for the season. Only the Frenchman, Jimmy Vicaut (9.86), has gone quicker.

The Tuks/HPC athlete’s next race will be on Saturday when he will compete in the Adidas Boost Boston Games, a two-day festival featuring a fan-friendly track event as well as the first-ever ‘street meet’ in Boston.

Among the top international stars who will compete in Boston are Olympic medallists Jenn Suhr, Meseret Defar, Nick Willis, and Yohan Blake.

Prinsloo said he also wants Simbine to compete in some 200m races before the Olympic Games in Rio.

At the African Championships in Durban he will compete in both the 100m and the 200m.

The South African 400 metres world champion, Wayde van Niekerk, won the 300 metres in Kingston in a time 31.03s.  This puts him third on the all-time list over this distance.

According to the Alltime-athletics.com website only Michael Johnson (USA), who ran 30.85s in 2000, and Bolt, who ran 30.97s in 2010, have run faster times over 300 metres than Van Niekerk.