Johannesburg - Perhaps it was nature’s way of telling him to slow down a bit but South African 100m record holder Akani Simbine is back after a short injury hiatus and looking to get back to shape ahead of the Rio Olympic Games.
Simbine took a cautious approach after he pulled up with a hamstring towards the end of the short sprint final at the South African Track and Field Championships in Stellenbosch last month.
Former joint-national record holder Henricho Bruintjies claimed the title with a title of 10.17 seconds while Simbine still managed to finish in second place with a creditable time of 10.21.
“The injury is sorted, I am back to running and everything is going well, so I am positive at the moment with the way things are going and the fact that I wasn’t as badly injured as I thought I was,” Simbine said.
“I was only supposed to be out for two-and-a-half weeks but we made it three to four weeks just to ensure I really recovered.
In the last few weeks I did a lot of pool sessions where I had to push it 100 percent and after that I could tell if I was feeling okay.”
Simbine was in phenomenal form before he tweaked his right hamstring, opening his season with a world-leading and new South African record time of 9.96 seconds in Pretoria in March.
Although he posted the time at altitude, he achieved it with striking ease while still at the foundation phase of his training programme.
Simbine will open his international campaign at the Rome Diamond League meeting on June 2 before joining South African 400m record-holder Wayde van Niekerk for a training camp in Jamaica with Usain Bolt’s coach, Glen Mills.
“I get a fresh start now from what I have built on what I had, for me I’ve rested but I’ve also been training,” Simbine said.
“I’m looking at it on the positive side that I’ve resting, and training and I just need to get back to where I was in terms of shape.”
The Kempton Park-born sprinter could not have asked for a better field to test his form lining up against Olympic champion Justin Gatlin and European record-holder Jimmy Vicaut of France.
“For my first race I don’t have any expectations because I don’t know where I am going to be at because of the break,” Simbine said.
“I just hope I am in good condition, so I am just going into the race with the same attitude as I had with my first races.
“No matter what condition I am in so I am just going to run and see where I am at and build from there.”
Meanwhile, there will be a South African invasion at track and field meetings over the weekend starting at the Ostrava Golden Spike Meeting on Friday.
One-lap hurdles ace LJ van Zyl will line up on the same track where he equalled his South African record of 47.66 seconds in 2011 which is also the meeting record. He will be joined by Nolene Conrad, who is chasing Olympic qualification in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.
On Sunday a host of athletes will be in action at the World Challenge meeting in Hengelo and the Rabat Diamond League.
Bruintjies has been making promising improvements this season and will be boosted by the national title when he opens his international season in the Dutch city of Hengelo.
He will be joined by fellow South African athletes Rynardt van Rensburg (800m), Elroy Gelant (5 000m), Dylon Cotter (long jump), Victor Hogan (discus throw), and women’s 100m champion Alyssa Conley.
Six South Africans will compete at the inaugural Rabat Diamond League meeting spearheaded by four women, Olympic silver medallist Caster Semenya (800m), Wenda Nel (400m hurdles), Carina Horn (100m) with Dumisane Hlaselo (1 500m) and Antonio Alkana (110m hurdles), and Ruswahl Samaai (long jump) representing the men.
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