Cape Town – With his victory in a time of 9.99s at the 20th European Athletics Classics Meeting in Slovenia on Wednesday evening, Akani Simbine joined a very select group of sprinters who were also able to break the 10-second barrier over 100 metres.
Simbine topped a good evening for the South African sprinters as Henricho Bruintjies finished second in 10.15s with Hyman Kemar from the Cayman Islands third in 10.28s.
If the statistics on Wikipedia are correct Simbine (Tuks/HPC) was only the 103rd sprinter who was able to run the 100 metres in less than 10 seconds.
On 14 October 1968, in Ciudad de México (Estadio Olímpico), Jim Hines (USA) won the 100 metres in 9.95s to become the first athlete ever to break through the magical 10-second barrier.
The first South African to run faster than 10 seconds was Simon Magakwe. He won the 100 metres in a time of 9.98s at last year’s South African Championships in Pretoria.
Before Simbine departed to compete internationally, the Tuks/hpHPC athlete at first said his main goal for the season was to break 10 seconds.
“However, when I started competing I had second thoughts and changed my goal to focusing on running the perfect race instead. I reckoned that if I managed to run the perfect race, sub-10 seconds would happen automatically.
“For me being a good sprinter is all about consistency. This means that I do not chase fast times any longer, but rather focus on making sure that I do the small things right. This means that I focus on running the perfect race. I am still under pressure, but I do not allow it to ‘sit on my shoulders’,” said Simbine, who ran a time of 10.02s at last year’s national championships.
Other South Africans also caught the eye on Wednesday. Rynhardt van Rensburg finished second in the 800 metres in a time of 1:45.40, while Justine Palframan finished second in the 200 metres in a time of 23.36s. - ANA