Akani Simbine (born 21 September 1993) is a South African sprinter specialising in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

event. He was fifth at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the men's 100 metres and was the 100 metres African record holder with a time of 9.84 seconds set in July 2021 until broken by

Ferdinand Omurwa Ferdinand Omanyala Omurwa (born 2 January 1996) is a Kenyan sprinter competing in the 60 metres, 100 m and 200 m. In 2022, he won his first international championships, with victories in the 100 m at the Commonwealth Games, ...

in September 2021. Simbine was a

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

finalist in the men's 100 metres in

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(fifth) and

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(fourth), and was 100 metres champion at the 2018 African Championships and 2018 Commonwealth Games. In the 4 × 100 metres relay he helped South Africa become champions at the African Championships in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

and

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, and place second at the 2018 Commonwealth Games with a South African record time of 38.24 seconds. He anchored South Africa to gold at the 2021 World Relays. Simbine has finished inside the top 5 in the last 4 major championship 100m races including 4th in

2019 World Athletics Championships – Men's 100 metres The men's 100 metres at the 2019 World Athletics Championships was held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha on 27 to 28 September 2019. Summary The semi-finals were dominated by world leader Christian Coleman, who was allowed to comp ...

and

Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metres The men's 100 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July and 1 August 2021 at the Olympic Stadium. 84 athletes were expected to compete; 27 nations used universality places to enter athletes in addition to the 56 qualifying ...

missing out on the bronze medal to Canadian sprinter

Andre De Grasse Andre De Grasse (born November 10, 1994) is a Canadian sprinter. A six-time Olympic medallist, De Grasse is the reigning Olympic champion in the 200 m, and also won the silver in the 200 m in 2016. He won a second silver in the 4×100 re ...

Biography

2013 World Championships

He competed in the

event at the

2013 World Championships in Athletics The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013) () was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 200 ...

2015 Universiade

Whilst an Information Science student at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 ...

, Simbine equalled the South African 100m record and set an event record on 9 July 2015 in his gold medal-winning run at the 2015 Universiade in Gwangju,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

2016 South African record and Olympic Games

Simbine again broke the South African 100m record with a time of 9.89 seconds at the

Gyulai István Memorial The Gyulai István Memorial is an annual track and field meet that takes place at Bregyó közi Regionális Atlétika Központ in Székesfehérvár, Hungary. It was first held in 2011 at the Ferenc Puskás Stadium in Budapest. The meeting is curr ...

in Székesfehérvár on 18 July 2016. He finished fifth in 9.94 seconds in the 100 m final of the

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

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on 14 August 2016.

2017

In the first meet of the

2017 IAAF Diamond League The 2017 Diamond League was the eighth season of the annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It is the first to feature the new championship-style system in wh ...

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

, Simbine won the 100 m event with a time of 9.99 seconds.

2018

Simbine won the 2018 Commonwealth Games 100 m final in 10.03 seconds, relegating pre-race favourite

Yohan Blake Yohan Blake (born 26 December 1989) is a Jamaican sprinter specialising in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprint races. He won gold at the 100 m at the 2011 World Athletics Championships as the youngest 100 m world champion ever, and a silver me ...

into third.

2020

Simbine started his 2020 season with a 150 metre race at the University of Johannesburg Stadium on 14 February, equalling the South African record time (15.08) while jogging to the finish line, but with no wind information. He ran his first 100 m for the season on 14 March at the University of Pretoria Tuks Stadium. Unsure whether or not he would be able to compete later in the season because of the rapidly spreading

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, he pushed all the way to the finish line in a world-leading time of 9.91 seconds in the heats. Simbine stopped track training in March and didn't get permission to resume training again until July, weeks after other sports had resumed training, after he pleaded with

Athletics South Africa Athletics South Africa is the national governing body for the sport of athletics (including track and field, cross country, road running and racewalking) in South Africa, recognised by the IAAF, and also a member of Confederation of African Athl ...

to allow athletes back onto the track.Mohamed, Ashfak (21 September 2020)
"Despite "stupid-crazy Covid year", Simbini's march to the Olympics continues"
'' Diamond Fields Advertiser (DFA)''. Retrieved 16 May 2021. He would not be able to compete until leaving South Africa in mid-August for Europe, winning a series of 100 m competitions in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

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, and

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in times of 10.19, 10.17, and 10.02 seconds respectively. He finished his season in September with a 100 m victory at the Rome Diamond League, trailing Arthur Cissé of the Ivory Coast for the first 85 m before passing to win in 9.96 seconds.

2021

Simbine started the season with a 10.00 seconds win in the 100 metres at the Athletix Invitational in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

on 23 March, which would have been a leading time but for the wind velocity, which was just over the allowable +2.0 m/s limit. He broke 10 seconds at the Gauteng North Championships at the University of Pretoria on 27 March, winning in 9.99 seconds ahead of Gift Leotlela (10.20) into a –3.0 wind. According to ''SuperSport'', Simbine claimed that the "windy conditions were some of the worst I ever raced in." On 15 April at the South African Championships in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

, Simbine competed in the men's 100 metres, finishing his first round heat in 10.11 seconds. He then won his semi-final in 9.82 seconds, the fastest he had ever run, but the wind was again over the limit for record purposes at +2.8 m/s. The next day he clocked his 29th sub-10-second time with 9.99 seconds to win the final, finishing 0.17 seconds ahead of second placing Gift Leotlela's 10.16 seconds. Two weeks later, on 2 May, Simbine anchored South Africa to gold in the men's 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2021 World Relays. He received the baton three metres behind Brazil's Paulo André de Oliveira, but managed to close the gap and finish one hundredth of a second ahead of Brazil with a time of 38.71 seconds. On 6 July, racing at the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix, Simbine set a new national and African record of 9.84 seconds, in winning the final. On 1 August, At the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, held in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan, Simbine finished fourth in a time of 9.93 seconds, behind winner Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy, with a time of 9.80 seconds.

Statistics

Information from

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

profile unless otherwise noted.

Personal bests

International championship results

Circuit wins and national titles

* Diamond League (100 m) **

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2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

* South African Championships **100 m: 2015,

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**200 m:

Seasonal bests

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simbine, Akani 1993 births Living people South African male sprinters Sportspeople from Johannesburg Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for South Africa Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics World Athletics Championships athletes for South Africa University of Pretoria alumni Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of South Africa Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade gold medalists for South Africa Universiade bronze medalists for South Africa African Championships in Athletics winners South African Athletics Championships winners Commonwealth Games gold medallists in athletics Medalists at the 2015 Summer Universiade Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2022 Commonwealth Games