South African athletes’ stellar performances seemed to have piqued the interests of global corporates with national 100m record-holder Akani Simbine and vertical jumps ace Ruswahl Samaai the latest to sign a sponsorship deal.
Individual sponsorships may rarely be a reason to grab headlines but it had been a rarity in local track and field athletics.
Samaai and Simbine Wednesday penned a six-month deal with South Korean electronics giant Panasonic which is one of the official sponsors to the Rio Olympic Games.
“It is a great thing for us and South African athletics as a whole because now it shows the corporate world is looking into athletics, and not just other sports,” Simbine summed up the significance of the deal.
“Having Panasonic on our side is a great confidence booster, it is great they are investing in us and seeing the value we bring.”
Simbine said he hoped the increased publicity South African athletes were getting from good performances would inspire others to take up the sport.
“We get the South African population talking, and if we can keep on performing and doing well, we will hopefully get more South African guys into athletics, and get athletics back to where it was back in the day,” Simbine said.
“We can pack stadiums, we can have national championships packed, and provincial championships packed.”
At the announcement an emotional Samaai expressed how much the sponsorship meant for the Paarl-born athlete.
“I am living my dream, it is amazing that a global corporate sees talent in our sport like Akani and myself, it is a blessing, a privilege, and I am just speechless,” Samaai said.
“I could never picture that this day would come true this is a complete different direction to what I had in mind. So I just have to keep on working hard, and more things will come but it is amazing.”
Samaai is fresh off winning his maiden continental long jump title at last week’s African Athletics Championships in Durban with a wind-assisted leap of 8.40m adding to his Commonwealth Games bronze medal.
He shared the podium with long-time friend and compatriot Luvo Manyonga, who win silver with a jump of 8.23m with Botswana’s Ruru Rammkolodi taking bronze with 7.90m.
A jet-lagged Simbine did well to earn a podium spot in the 100m final claiming third place with a time of 10.05 seconds with Ivorian Ben Yousseff Meitte winning in a wind-assisted +2.4m/s time of 9.95s with Mosito Lehat of Lesotho taking silver in 10.04s.
“I really did want that gold, I came to African champs wanting to win it, I knew if I was 100 percent I could win it,” Simbine said.
“But it wasn’t meant to he and I am not bummed out about it because the bigger goal is the Olympics.”
The duo will be leaving for Europe at the end of the week as they go into their final meets before the Olympic Games with Samaai lining up in at the Monaco Diamond League on July 15 while Simbine has a few races scheduled including a permit meeting in Lignano on July 13. – The Star