Simbine makes history with sub-20 time in 200m

Akani Simbine Photo: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix

Akani Simbine Photo: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix

Published Mar 4, 2017

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Making history at a regular league meeting Akani Simbine became the first South African to run under 10 seconds in the 100m and 20 seconds in the 200m on the same day in Pretoria on Saturday.

Simbine posted the fastest 100m time in South Africa clocking 9.93 seconds before becoming the first local athlete to dip below 20 seconds in the 200m on home soil with a time of 19.95s.

Fellow Olympian Clarence Munyai, who finished second behind Simbine in both races broke the South African 200m junior record clocking a time of 20.10 seconds.

Simbine first made it look easy in the 100m dash in the morning when he stopped the clock at 9.93 seconds posting the fastest time ever in South Africa.

Munyai in turn missed Simbine’s junior national 100m record by 0.01s racing to a new personal best of 10.20 seconds.

The dangerous duo left the best for last when they lined up next to each other in the half-lap sprint with the junior athlete leading with 50 metres to go.

Simbine finally got the monkey of dipping below 20 seconds off his back with Munyai adding to an historic race with his new national junior record.

Independent Media

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